Upgrade
by writersaddiction
Summary: The incident in Northern Ireland allows Seras her first taste of blood. Now she's on her way to learning what being a real vampire is like. A twist on the OVA/manga plot with a Seras Victoria focus. Hope you like it.
1. The Change

Everything afterward was a huge blur. It was hard to tell where to begin.

They would have to start with her, making a mess of the hall, ghoul blood covering her face and gloves. She was perfect, or at least would be, once she drank the blood.

He could see it; red eyes that struck the darkness and made anyone caught in their gaze piss themselves, retreating with their tails between their legs. Oh, she was glorious from the start.

He took one second more. He'd have to. That would change everything.

"It tastes good, doesn't it?"

Seras licked her lips in satisfied pleasure, purring at the sudden power she felt within her. She turned to her Master, a wicked thrill evident in her expression as she nodded.

His chuckle was strange to her ears; she was unsure if it was excitement or delight. Either way, she did the right thing, didn't she? Probably, but she was still new to all this, so what did she really know?

She tilted her head to the side as he stiffened and yelped at the sudden hand that shot out towards her. "M-Master?" Then she noticed; in his hand was a blade, a bayonet, that he stopped mere inches from her face.

The elder vampire hissed, letting the weapon fall from his hand. "A blessed blade?" he murmured, looking over his shoulder for the source.

His ears caught footsteps thudding on the floorboards, and the closer they sounded, the more he recognized the presence. The power of his adversary would be great, but he knew that Seras would have some trouble with that kind of strength. "Police Girl," -She flinched at the call- "you need to go. Run. Hide."

Around them, papers fluttered and were forced onto the walls, ruins glowing golden as they landed.

Taking a few steps back, Seras hesitated at the order, wondering what he was planning. The bayonet must have come from someone. Was he going to fight them? She knew he would, but there was some unease to the thought.

"Now!"

With a whimper, she sprang into action, scrambling away from Alucard. She could hear his grunts, most likely from pain as foreign laughter echoed through the hall.

She turned the corner, grabbing her rifle from the floor as she went, and stopped, feeling a searing pain on her shoulder. The wall she rested it on seemed to shudder and shine, and she gulped. Where would she hide? The doors to the different rooms were likely affected by this strange force, and there was nowhere else to go. She frantically searched the new hall, but couldn't help peering back towards the nearby battle.

Alucard growled at the new presence. This priest would be a nuisance, he realized, pulling the blade out of his shoulder. Before he could react, two more dug into his back. He turned to meet his opponent, his shadows yanking the newest blades out of him.

"I see the Vatican has spared little expense in trying to get rid of me. The Iscariot Organization, I assume?" he purred, grinning at the sight of the large, looming priest before him.

"Aye, you bloody animal. I am the blade that will cut through all you vile monsters, sent forth by our God. I hope you're better than the vampire that made those ghouls you put to slaughter, Alucard." The priest placed a heavy emphasis on the name, a similarly mad smile on his face as he continued his slow, well-paced march.

"Interesting. You intend to kill me, despite knowing what I am?" Aiming his gun at the man, he added, "I'm not sure if you're either brave or foolish, but I admire the effort. What's your name, priest?"

"Alexander Anderson, the one who will finally defeat the Hellsing Organization's lap dog bloodsucker. Has a bit of a ring to it, don't you think?"

Soon, the two were caught in a hail of bullets and bayonets, knocking, twisting, and beating each other up. Neither gave up, continuously healing and getting back up before the other could make the killing blow.

However, Anderson had found the upper hand. He'd pierced dozens of blessed blades into the vampire, ensuring that he was pinned to the wall behind him. As Alexander prepared two more to slice the monster's head off and kill him once and for all, he cackled, thrill coursing through his body.

Alucard growled and bared his fangs, completely ignoring the pain of the bayonets. He barely had a moment to comment on his defeat before Alexander was knocked away from him.

A blur of blonde became the familiar form of Seras, standing in between the two and panting. In her hands was her rifle, and she was wielding it like a bat instead of how it was intended. She took a step backward and towards her Master, keeping a cautious eye on the insane Father.

"Idiot. What are you-" He was cut off once more, this time by Seras shooting Anderson.

Immediately, she turned and focused her efforts on pulling some of the bayonets off Alucard.

"I told you to run," he hissed.

"I know, but I didn't have anywhere to go, sir. Besides, you were in danger and I wasn't going to leave you behind." She flinched back as shadows easily removed the blades without her assistance, but stood unwavering as Alucard glared at her.

"You're a fool for disobeying, Police Girl."

"Well, you're more of a fool for forcing me away, sir. I can help. I'm not weak. I'm going to fight, whether you like it or not."

Her assertions intrigued him. Yes, she'd enjoyed a bit of blood and seemed willing to follow him into the darkness. This girl was a stubborn fighter, but was that enough to ensure her survival?

He sighed, resigned to letting her stay and fight. They both quickly turned their attention towards the Catholic priest twitching on the floor.

Anderson shot up from the ground, on his feet in moments and charging towards them.

Seras dodged, moving away from her Master and allowing the strange, regenerating monster hunter to come between them. She was wary of the fact that his sights were set on her, and from what she could tell, so was Alucard.

"You should've run off when you had the chance, lass. Now you'll be dust soon enough, along with your Master." He trained his bayonets in her direction, wanting to be rid of the easy kill of a pest.

"I wouldn't be so focused on the Police Girl. If I were you, I'd pay attention to the more powerful enemy right behind you." Alucard fired a few bullets into the priest's skull, just enough for Seras to get out of range and pull their enemy's focus onto him.

As his wounds healed, Alexander pivoted towards Alucard and made wild, forceful swipes at him, fully intent on slicing him up and beheading him.

With the men distracted, Seras frantically considered her next move. Of course, Alucard could handle the job, but this seemed to be a threat they weren't entirely equipped to handle yet, from what she could tell.

She could always fire at Anderson again, but that would only bring his attention back to her, and she certainly couldn't deal with the bullish man directly like her Master. She needed something unexpected, that could stun him long enough for her Master to take a decent shot.

Her eyes landed on one of the dozens of holy blades littering the floor. That could work.

Alucard forced another hail of bullets through the priest's body, taking each cut and jab as if being annoyingly poked and prodded by a child. As fun as the fight had begun, things were starting to lose their charm and he was growing tired of this.

They were at this ridiculous standoff, relentlessly attacking each other despite knowing neither would fall and die from any of this. Neither of them would gain an edge anymore, even if he tried.

Without warning, a bayonet lodged itself into Anderson's shoulder, Seras screaming as she pushed it deeper in. The handle was burning through her gloves, the holy ruins searing her vampiric flesh.

The priest was definitely thrown off, just long enough that Alucard aimed at the heart and fired deep and directly.

Seras stumbled back, staring at her hands and whimpering before she looked to Alucard expectantly.

Well, that was certainly the edge he hadn't expected. The Police Girl was shaping up to be better than his expectations, it seemed.

There wasn't time to dawdle on that fact, though. The Judas priest would be up any moment and with the mission apparently complete, there was no need for the vampires to stick around.

He stepped over Father Anderson's still body, noting the start of the healing process before pushing Seras away. In little time, he was practically carrying his fledgling out of the building.

He could sense it; the presence of his Master coming ever closer. Had she heard about the Vatican's involvement and decided to come see the results?

"Um, Master, you can put me down. I'm perfectly capable of walking." Seras kicked her legs until she was free to walk again, finding the soft thud of her boots against the ground and grass soothing, in a way.

In fact, other subtle sensations overtook her. The full moon's glow made her skin tingle with a foreign strength. The blood she'd previously enjoyed, as well as some of the regenerating priest's left on her gloves, filled her with a thrill to hunt. Her eyes found the darkness of night no longer held an issue for her; she could practically see through the shadows. Vague scents of ghoul blood still lingered on her uniform.

Then there was the sound of a helicopter coming closer. She looked up at the sky, finding one hovering above them. The familiar face of her Master's master, Sir Integra, appeared from the side. Seras waved, grinning as a rope ladder dropped from the copter.

When the two vampires settled into the copter seats, Integra was quick to question Alucard, starting with the obvious. Alucard gave simple replies, though emphasizing a few details of importance. All throughout this report, his gaze flickered over to the Police Girl, who remained silent unless spoken to, and otherwise enjoyed the view of England as they made their way back home.

"How was Seras this time around?" Integra finally asked him, curious about his behavior.

There came that maniac grin, the only answer she needed and could translate to "perfect". She was somewhat concerned, and it apparently showed.

"She finally drank some blood, didn't you, Police Girl?" He nudged the girl's side, and she giggled and playfully snapped her teeth at him before reaffirming his words.

"Interesting. Well, I'll make sure to order a few extra blood packs now that there's another bloodsucker I have to feed."

Another bloodsucker? Seras frowned at the woman's wording. A voice in the back of her mind, much quieter than it used to be, whispered about how she shouldn't have taken the blood. She shouldn't become the monster she was turned into, lose her humanity to her thirst, and eagerly throw herself into every battle Sir Integra ordered them to.

But she honestly didn't mind. Integra had good intentions and her Master was obligated to follow her command. As long as she knew those facts, was drinking blood and being a bloodsucker really an issue?

She did choose this life, after all. What better way to handle it than to embrace it as much as she wanted?


	2. Training Session

It was quiet, an off day really. No missions for them to go on. No real work to be done. All there was to do was sit around and enjoy the night.

Seras licked her lips of the remaining blood before tossing the empty blood pack onto her bedside table. She rolled over onto her back and sighed, staring up at the ceiling as satisfaction coursed through her veins.

Since she'd been drinking the blood, her mood on the whole vampire thing had changed. Of course, it was still strange and drinking blood did bring a few... concerns, but for the most part, she felt excited, though for what, she wasn't sure. She figured it had much to do with the energy and strength blood gave her now.

Recently, she found herself moving much faster through the halls, though her pace felt no different from before. Whenever she passed another soldier, they seemed rather surprised by her presence, as if she'd magically appeared out of nowhere like a magician.

And then there was the practice time. Shooting cardboard targets was much more fun, her precision and accuracy better than ever. She'd actually impressed a lot of the troops, though some of them brushed it off as her freakish vampire powers at work, instead of actual effort, training, and talent, as they put it.

Though it wasn't far off, she still had to scoff at them. What did they know? They were humans. They didn't know the sacrifice of life it took to make her this way. All they saw was the bizarre yet normal looking girl, doing inhuman things because that's what she was. They could barely imagine the bloodshed.

She'd seen what Alucard was like, and at the rate she was going, according to him, she'd be a ruthless monster in no time.

She knew for a fact she'd become something akin to a monster soon enough. The strange looks and nervous glances were already ticking her off. Ruthless, though? That wasn't exactly her cup of tea in terms of words to describe herself with.

Back in Cheddar, while she was still the human Police Girl, the other officers called her Kitten. They thought she could never hurt a fly. Of course, she was young and naive, so she really wasn't much of a threat, she had to admit that.

Barely passing a month after she'd been turned now, she was already showing signs of being much stronger than a tiny cat. Honestly, if she were to keep that insult of a metaphor, her Master would be a fearsome, ferocious lion, and she was the young cub at his side, a little lost but teachable nonetheless.

Speaking of teachable...

Usually, when it was a quiet day, Seras tended to search for something to do. It had far too often been fire practice, but when Integra began to limit the number of times she could do so, since it ended up wasting loads of ammunition in the end, she began to search for alternatives.

Sprucing up her room ended with some... mixed results, to say the least. Wasn't much she could do with such drab, grey surroundings; nothing she liked anyway.

She tried making friends with some of the other soldiers, but dealing with their mixed reactions of either not wanting to speak to her or being revoltingly immature and ogling her body had deterred her from continuing those efforts.

For a time, Seras considered herself effectively stuck doing nothing.

And then she was practically lured down. A calm baritone called to her, urging her to follow.

She climbed out of bed and left her room, marching down towards the only place she knew the source of that voice could come from.

The door to Alucard's chamber creaked open. She scanned the large, dark room, eyes quick to adjust to the shadows.

Seras had learned not to be afraid of her Master, as long as she followed orders, though she was to be wary of his tricks. He was fond of those, no doubt. Being a centuries-old vampire probably surfaced behavior like that.

She shut the door behind her, walking towards the lone throne sitting in the middle of the empty room. There was typically a small table next to it, if she recalled correctly, with perhaps a gun or wineglass with blood in it set on top. Strange it wasn't there this time around.

Unsure of what to do next, she stood there, waiting.

Her instincts were attentive to something lurking. It felt like her Master, but she couldn't explain the sense of doubt that came with that feeling. Maybe he was trying to trick her, as a test of some kind.

"Master? Is that you?" she called, patiently awaiting a response.

It came rather quickly, and she was barely able to dodge being grabbed by the head from behind. Instead, her Master held her wrist and she dug her free hand into his fingers in order to pry them off.

He put up little resistance, actually laughing at her reaction. "Impressive, Police Girl," he praised. "Decent reflexes and barely any hesitance to strike someone attacking you from behind. You've gotten better since your first lesson."

"Of course. It's almost as if I actually learned something from it." She rubbed away the dull ache from when he grabbed her, pouting as if offended by his words.

"And you've come back for more?"

"There's nothing better to do," she said, punctuating her words with a sigh. She sort of hated to admit she was bored and that coming to her Master was somewhat of a last resort. She honestly enjoyed the previous lessons. "What exactly are you planning on teaching me this time?"

His eyes gleamed with excitement, and with that look, Seras knew this wasn't going to be like the previous lessons.

Dodging another sudden attack, she scuffled over the throne, making sure to put a bit of distance between herself and Alucard. A glance granted her the privilege to witness him phasing through the throne and practically eating up the meters she'd put between them.

Faster now, moving further into the chamber, scrambling away from his powerful strikes, all of it made little difference. He stayed right at her heels, not granting her a second to think.

"Strike me, Police Girl. Fleeing from battle will only get you so far."

Seras skid around, quickly circling him. She was on all fours at this rate. Weaving close, then pushing off from dangerous attacks, waiting for her chance.

There. All at once, she pounced, forcing him into the wall and choking him with one arm. Her other slashed at his face and chest, creating thick ribbons of blood until it splattered onto her.

Then realization struck back. The only thing bleeding was her fingers, having sliced into the solid wall. She left a decent, deep, and monstrous cut, but there was no Alucard to take the hit.

"What the-"

It was her mistake to question during the fight. She learned that fast as her body was slammed onto the floor. Pinned beneath her Master, all she could do was scream and squirm. He wasn't exactly choking her, like she'd planned to do to him, but it was still uncomfortable and distressing. She was still confused as to how she'd not been tearing him to pieces before.

And he laughed at her.

"Mind if I use your idea on you?" he joked. His playfulness cooled down somewhat as he took notice of her annoyance. "Come now, Police Girl. If you haven't learned what to do by now, you haven't been paying attention. You're stuck, and you can't exactly tear through me when you can barely move. What will you do to free yourself?"

Baring her fangs in frustration, Seras mulled through his words. From what she'd figured out, Alucard wasn't one to teach by simply showing and telling her. It was the heat of battle after all. She had to learn her opponent, he'd told her during the first lesson, and by paying attention to their actions and attitude, she could defeat them with ease. Or in this case, get out of trouble.

His thumb pressed into her throat, forcing her to gag and sputter. "I'm losing patience, Police Girl."

What? What? Ugh. Alright. Focus. What the hell had he been doing?

Besides attacking her... Phasing through things!

Well, that wasn't hard to figure out, but recreating it wouldn't be easy. How the hell was she going to do that without any knowledge of where to start?

Alucard reached into his coat pocket, dragging out his Casull and aiming it directly at her head.

Damn it, damn it, damn. There wasn't much time to think anymore.

It had to be like... Like becoming fog, in a way? She remembered how vampires were said to become mist and move through places. From the book. It was her only shot, and she needed to move, or else she'd _be_ shot.

Closing her eyes, she pressed her body into the floor, imagining herself as a light cloud of mist. Hopefully, this worked.

Her entire body relaxed, and at this fact, she opened her eyes. Only then did she realize she wasn't exactly doing that, but something strangely to that equivalent. She was in some dark, seemingly endless void and she was... floating.

It was definitely odd. Especially since she could look down and see her body, but it looked somewhat faded. She was a ghost. A cold, confused ghost.

How she could tell up from down, she wasn't sure. Something told her stepping forward meant bumping into Alucard again, and she quickly learned from this how the rest of this trick worked.

Her hands could somewhat press into some kind of barrier to Alucard's room, a thin, weak veil that separated her from forming back and staying in this darkness. Behind her, or in this case, beneath her, was an endless nothing, from what she could feel. This was the lowest part of the mansion, after all.

She spun, reorienting herself to stand as if she were still in a room, then she walked. In a way, she moved through the endless void. Her powers worked to both figure her way around and keep track of her Master at the same time. Each cautious step meant he had a chance to appear and pull her out of this state.

Once she made it to an edge of the room, a floor to wall one, she hopped up to chamber floor level. She could sense Alucard was close, likely keeping track of her as well, but still took that first step through the threshold. It didn't seem like her Master was going to attack her.

To her delight, she was right.

Her Master stood there, a delighted twinkle in his eye similar to the one from when she'd first drank blood. It seemed she'd learned her lesson.

"Absolute perfection, Police Girl," he spoke with pride. "You're learning quite quickly what it means to be a true creature of the night."

"Thank you, Master," she replied, delighted by the praise.

He moved closer, circling her as she had done before, but slower.

She remained still, confused but alert to his every step.

Finally, he declared, "I think you'll enjoy the gifts, once they arrive."

This news surprised her. "Gifts? What gifts?" she asked, following at his heels as he walked to his throne. With each new skip in her step, she wondered what on earth her Master had decided to give her. A man as unpredictable and mysterious as Alucard meant it could be anything, and there were two as well. Were they related in any way? Was it something he knew she'd like or was he joking?

"You'll see when they come, Police Girl." He collapsed onto his seat and rested his chin on his hand, smirking at his fledgling's reformed pout.

"Oh, come on, Master. Can't you at least give me a hint?" she begged.

"Have patience, Police Girl. Their arrival will be sooner than you think."


	3. Fortunate

"What the- Walter, what is this?" Seras questioned as she entered her room. She'd just returned from target practice to find the Hellsing butler letting a large wooden coffin thump onto the floor, right in the middle of her room.

"Ah, Miss Victoria. I wasn't expecting you to return so quickly." The butler shuffled away from the coffin and Seras as she walked up to it.

"What is this?" she repeated, punctuating each word with a slight hiss.

"That would be a coffin."

"Yes. I understand that. What is it doing here?" Her eyes turned a piercing red, more out of annoyance than anger.

"Well, you are a vampire after all, and vampires do sleep in coffins. Like your Master with his, this will be your resting place, whether you like it or not." He stood firm, unwavering despite the threatening gaze. He was wary of her, since she was Alucard's fledgling after all, but knowing enough of her personality, he wasn't all too frightened.

"Why?" she whined. "Can't I just sleep in a bed?"

Walter was about to answer, but was cut off by the sudden shadow looming over the poor girl. She must've sensed it as well, almost jumping out of her skin in fright before peering up at Alucard.

"Not anymore, Police Girl. You're a vampire now, an undead creature of the night. Drinking blood may give you strength, but only by sleeping in a coffin will you be able to retain that power for future use." The elder vampire placed his hands on her shoulders, dwarfing her already small form even more.

Seras sighed, glaring at the coffin.

With a grunt of disapproval, Alucard added, "I thought you'd like this gift. I had my Master buy it for you and everything."

"This was the gift you were talking about? A coffin? Really?" She slumped to the floor, deciding then to at least look over the damn thing. She opened it, a little hopeful that this was all some trick and there was actually something else inside. To her dismay, no such luck, though a part of her was relieved the coffin had a plush interior.

"One of the gifts I mentioned, yes."

She perked up at this, peering up at him with a curious and somewhat optimistic gleam in her still red eyes.

He motioned towards Walter, who seemed to already know what he was talking about.

The butler pulled a large briefcase onto the table, concerningly large, almost comical, carefully opened it and took out what she could only describe as a monster of a weapon.

"A gun?"

"A cannon, actually. Custom-made, the Harkonnen will blast through even the toughest targets," Walter explained.

"So your gifts were a coffin... And a cannon?" she asked her Master, clearly disappointed.

"Come now, Police Girl. You can't always get what you want. You might not enjoy them, but you'll learn to at least appreciate the coffin for what it is," Alucard scolded.

Groaning, Seras replied, "Yes, sir." She watched as Walter set the cannon down by the table, sliding another unopened, smaller briefcase towards Alucard before bowing and leaving. "Do I have to use the cannon?"

As Alucard picked up the extra case, he sighed. "If the situation demands it, I'd advise you at least give it a chance. Otherwise, you can hide it away with that picky attitude of yours."

"I'm not being picky," she protested. "I just thought the gifts would be... Err..." She shrunk lower to the floor at his scrutinous gaze. "Much... more... lighthearted?" That wasn't the right word, but fear made her not even want to speak anymore.

She had to admit she was being a bit childish about the gifts. The cannon was custom made for her, though she had no idea where and when she'd even use it. The coffin, she wasn't entirely protesting. It had some worth, even if she'd rather have a normal bed to sleep in. She understood why she needed the coffin, but the cannon? She already had a rifle, one she was completely content with using. That Harkonnen was unusable overkill.

"I reserve better gifts for my well-behaved fledglings," Alucard joked, bending down to her level and tapping her forehead. "Once you've proven to be one, then I'll consider something nicer."

"You're mean, Master," she said in return, batting away his poking finger and sticking out her tongue.

Before the silly mood could settle in, the sounds of an explosion came from above. Both vampires looked up and listened, Seras immediately standing in preparation of an emergency.

Walter appeared at the doorway, scrambling over to the phone.

"Someone's attacking? I wonder if they have any idea what they're doing." Alucard smirked, insane, sharp teeth gleaming with hunger.

Seras gulped, honestly thinking something similar. Whoever these people were, they have to have known what they were getting into. This was Hellsing manor; armed guards marched through practically every corner of the place. Not to mention Alucard and herself were around and capable of dispatching most monster-related threats, especially her Master.

"Oh, they clearly do," Walter said, looking to the two vampires before returning to the call he had made. "Right. I'll be heading to the conference room to keep Sir Integra protected. Keep these attackers from getting there as much as you can." He quickly switched lines, responding to an incoming call right as it came. "Yes, Sir Integra. I'm downstairs with Alucard and Miss Victoria. Her room, yes. I've already talked to them and they'll be working to defend the conference room."

"Master, what are we going to do?" Seras asked, flinching at the sound of another explosion above their heads.

Alucard chuckled. "Getting rid of these fools, of course. They obviously intend to kill my Master, and, like Walter, I expect you to head to the conference room and protect her."

"What about you?"

"Me? I'll be taking care of the other one."

"Other one? What on Earth are you...?"

With one last devilish chuckle, Alucard disappeared into the floor.

She could feel him moving through the stonework, startling her by pulling one of her legs through by the ankle. It was easy to readjust, but she growled at the floor before he completely disappeared.

"Alucard's left to handle some of the intruders. Seems he's sending Seras off to the conference room. Am I correct, Miss Victoria?" Walter said, eyeing her with a curious raise of a brow.

She nodded, about to leave through the door. Then she remembered. She was a vampire. Getting to Sir Integra meant becoming shadowy mist and running through the walls. Quick, efficient, and to the point.

Closing her eyes, Seras darted through the floor, focusing on the clear presence of Integra upstairs. Her form bounced between the walls. Finally, she found the room, pushing through the barrier and hearing multiple screams and gasps as she entered. Cautiously, she walked over to Integra's side, ignoring the rest of the people.

"There you are, Seras. I've been told Alucard has told you what you must do." There was Integra, biting into a cigar, somewhat annoyed but keeping her nerves in check. Was there any doubt a woman like her was afraid for her life with two undead monsters at her beck and call?

"Protecting you was all he said, sir," Seras responded, straightening up despite the confusion directed her way from the council.

"Then go out there and destroy these intruders. Make them pay for killing my men," Integra commanded, her fists clenched tighter and cigar bouncing with each word.

The men at the Roundtable eyed Seras, shocked and frightened. She could tell that despite knowing monsters like her existed, they hadn't actually encountered one so closely. Though somewhat unnerved by their fear, she stepped back, towards the doors behind Integra. A cautious hand pressed against the door, then she phased through it with ease.

Immediately, she was hit with the powerful stench of death, rotting corpse smell like a disgusting, invisible fog moving through the halls. Mixed with the fresh scent of blood, Seras felt a tad nauseous.

Marching, thudding steps. They came closer, almost at the same pace as she walked. The smell became worse as she followed it forward.

There. A few at first, a man with a group of soldiers- no, ghouls, from the smell of them- following him. The ghouls were armored and given weapons to hold in their dead, rotten hands.

She stood there, observing the man's arrogant stride towards her, until he finally gave indication that he saw her. He seemed to wave to a few of the ghouls for their attention, then snapped his fingers.

She bolted out of the way of the bullets, pouncing into the middle of the horde and slashing through the first few lines. Barely given time to enjoy the thrill, she dodged another round and cut the second half of the zombies into bloody ribbons.

This was surprisingly easy. She hadn't touched the strange man though. Who knew what such a peculiar character had in store.

Maybe, absolutely nothing? It appeared so, as she quickly pinned him to the floor, and despite his kicking and screaming, gave little indication of actually letting him go.

"Seras, stop!"

Integra's voice startled her, halted as well by wires digging into her arms. She was just about to kill this last vampire. Her orders were to destroy them all, weren't they?

"Hey! Get off me, you bitch! The fuck? They never said anything about a second one. The hell!" The man continued to struggle beneath her, the arrogance he appeared to have before lost in confusion and anger.

"Enough. Police Girl, keep this one down for now." At Seras' nod of understanding, Integra turned her attention to their captive. "I demand answers immediately. Who sent you to this manor? Why are you here?"

The man scoffed, "As if I'll tell you idiots. If you're too dense to figure it out, what's the point?"

Obviously having none of that, Integra snapped her fingers. "Police Girl," was all she needed to say.

Seras growled, teeth bared and poised to kill. She tightened her hold. It was somewhat gratifying to hear the man whine in his struggle.

"You think your vampire bitch is going to get me to tell you everything? You don't even know what's coming, do you?" The man laughed, only for it to devolve into coughing. When he finally stopped, he grinned, beaming with a thrill despite his current position. "You're all doomed, just you wait."

Faint but recognizable groaning. Seras perked her head up. It was coming closer, just like before. A slow shamble down the hall. A presence with them as well.

Doors down the hall opened, a rotten ghoul body falling in a dead heap to the ground.

"This one's still alive? How disappointing. I thought you would've taken care of this mess by now, Police Girl," Alucard said. He carelessly stepped on the dead guard's body as he made his way down the hall, his signature grin present as always.

"It's not my fault, Master. Sir Integra wanted to interrogate him." Seras deflated a little, but kept her arm tight around the enemy's neck.

"Ah, Alucard. You made it. How unexpected of you to join us," Integra remarked.

"I was merely curious as to all the obnoxious yelling and stench of death."

"Wait. Alucard? Then that means-! What the fuck did you do to Luke?" the man under Seras screamed, thrashing about to no avail. "What the fuck did you do to my brother?"

Integra, quick to understand, shifted her gaze back to her vampire. "He's been taken care of?"

"Of course, my Master. I assumed you wanted the information he had as well? He didn't seem to know much–" he looked down at the weakling stuck under his fledgling– "and I doubt this one will be any better with details. All that's left to do is clean up the mess."

As he stated his last sentence, Seras noticed the blood on her body slide to the floor, slowly and purposefully making its way towards her Master. Like magic, it disappeared at his feet. She met his gaze and he chuckled, a knowing glint in his eye telling her to have patience.

"Fine," Integra declared. "I'll expect a full report after I've finished with the conference." She swerved on her heel and sighed. Without a word, Walter lit her cigar, then the two walked back towards the conference room, leaving the two vampires with the captive.

"Police Girl." Though a bit dumbfounded, Seras turned her attention back to her Master. "You know that means you're allowed to kill him now, right?" He raised an eyebrow, watching her confusion become realization.

She'd been distracted by her Master's sudden appearance that she'd forgotten the idiot still in her chokehold.

He was complaining and trying to break free, and she had ignored him completely by drowning him out with the previous conversation. Honestly, he wasn't worth the trouble she was even going through keeping him still.

"Oh, r-right!"

* * *

Silence. Almost silence.

The ticking of a clock. Frustrated typing. A short drag of a cigar. Back to work.

Whispers, barely audible to the ear behind the door.

A knock.

"Come in," Integra spoke dismissively.

The door didn't open, but two figures walked through it anyway.

"My Master, was my report not to your liking? What would you need the Police Girl here for?" asked Alucard, the hint of a mocking tone evident but ignored.

"Master," Seras hissed, "I told you she only wanted me to come here."

"Actually–" Integra stood from her desk, moving her hands behind her back and walking away from her work– "I'd like for Alucard to hear this as well, so he's alright in being here."

Seras gulped, not liking the serious tone the Hellsing gave at all. Her red eyes darted to Alucard, confused but also pleading with him to give her some kind of help, if this was the case. When she looked back to Integra, she flinched and shrunk into herself, that unwavering, sharp gaze striking even harder than words could ever hope to.

"Err..." Seras stammered, "I-Is there something you needed of me, s-sir?"

There was silence as they waited for Integra to respond. It was excruciating, deafening, and especially uncomfortable for Seras.

"You've accustomed yourself to your new life, am I correct?"

Bored yet scrutinous eyes pierced through Seras. Her mind raced to understand a reason for asking, for calling her in for this strange questioning, but she was too nervous to think beyond frightening motives.

"Y-Yes?" she replied. She glanced over at her Master, but it seemed he was also unsure of what was happening. The concern he showed wasn't helping her feel any better. "Um... Master's been training me, if that's what you're asking."

Integra chuckled, the smallest of smiles presenting itself before her seriousness returned. "Of course. I'd expect that to have been the case. It's not what you're here for, unfortunately."

It wasn't? Then what? Seras didn't dare directly ask. She was sure Integra could tell she was wondering.

"I'm sure you're aware that Alucard has some restraints and rules set upon him from our bond." Leaning against her desk, Integra flicked her cigar above the ash tray.

Alucard tensed, struck by a realization Seras still couldn't comprehend.

"You do not have these same restrictions, and I haven't decided if they're entirely necessary at the moment, considering you're still young." By this point, the cigar was back between her lips, and Integra had straightened up. "However...

"While your actions today did follow the orders given to you, I've come to realize that the path your Master is leading you may end rather unfavorably for the Organization."

"But..." Seras tried, but stopped herself. Integra wasn't wrong; Seras had acted out of line. Walter even had to intervene.

"You'd do best to listen as well, Alucard. If Miss Victoria shows any sign of irrational behavior or lack of self control, you know what will occur. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, sir," both vampires murmured, similarly nervous but for different reasons, it seemed.

Whatever implication Integra had added to her words, Seras wasn't entirely sure of, whether death or some other likely punishment, but her Master obviously and completely understood.

And that... That she didn't entirely like.


	4. Child or Monster

"Th-They're going to laugh at me. You know that, right?"

Integra sighed, pausing in her stride. She gave Seras a quiet side glance, urging her to be serious.

"Well, I'm not wrong," Seras exclaimed, crossing her arms over her chest and pouting. There was an embarrassed blush on her cheeks. "The other soldiers never took me seriously and they knew what I was and about Master and all that. These men have probably never seen a vampire in their lives."

"That's why you're coming along, Police Girl. To prove to them that such creatures exist."

"But, sir, who's going to believe I'm a monster? Just because I have red eyes and fangs won't mean anything to them. Why not have Master be your example?"

"You know why. Alucard is too much of a monster, too frightening and extreme an example of a vampire. If those men saw him, they'd likely try to escape their contracts as quickly as possible." She returned to walking down the hall.

" _Didn't you call me a monster not too long ago?_ "

Integra once more stopped, obviously hearing the snappy little whisper clear as day. "What was that?" She turned back around to address the vampire directly.

Despite knowing she'd been caught, Seras remained firm, though somewhat hesitant to speak. She gulped before responding, "I was told, by you specifically, that I was a significant threat, and you even warned my Master to keep watch over me, but now you insist I'm not at all like him, not as frightening. So which is it?"

"Miss Victoria–"

"Am I or am I not scary to you?"

That choice of words caught Integra off guard, especially with the tone of Seras' voice. Insistent, upset, even harsh. It definitely didn't fit the innocent girl standing before her. Then again, this wasn't just a girl she was talking to. This was a vampire. _She_ was a vampire. Seras _was_ a monster. An innocent, naive monster.

But there was something else to her. An unknown piece to the puzzle that was Seras Victoria that truly concerned Integra. It _could_ be described as uncertainty, but as to what, she couldn't clearly state.

Was the Police Girl frightening then?

"Well?" Seras furrowed her brow. The glint of a deadly fang poked out in frustration.

It was almost adorable, if looked at from a certain angle.

"You're a child. A dangerous, silly little child," Integra stated, as sharp and cold as the Police Girl pretended to be.

"A child?" Seras growled, ignored, however, as the Hellsing seemingly dismissed the conversation. "That's it then? I'm just an incapable idiot you can use to your advantage? That's all I–"

"Why does this matter to you?"

"Wh-What?"

"You heard me. _Why_ are you arguing this? You claim I'm contradicting myself, and yet here you are, doing the same. I shall ask you then, do you want to be treated like a child or a monster?"

Seras flinched, her argument crumbled to dust as well as her wit. She looked to the floor, silent, ashamed, and unable to answer.

With a soft huff, Integra swerved back around once more, this time punctuating each step she took like an all-important god. At least, that's what Seras dared to think, just for a moment.

Well, that was frustrating.

Seras twitched at the curious, baritone consideration that echoed in her mind. Seems someone was watching that little argument. Whether he was pleased or not, she couldn't tell.

Though reluctant now even more than ever, Seras followed Integra's path to the new soldiers. From what she'd been told, both by Walter and Integra, these were skilled mercenaries, so she and the surviving soldiers were only better than them by one vampiric notch, in her case literally.

"I heard from one of the guys working here that this place is haunted by the dead."

"Pfft, yeah, right."

"No, seriously, he told me that his co-workers were all killed and turned into zombies. Now their ghosts are probably floating around ready to kill us."

"Dude, shut up. Honestly, you sound like a kid at a playground."

Seras could hear their voices, and she already missed the subtle maturity of the previous soldiers. This lot already sounded like idiots.

 _Police Girl, don't be so critical of these new humans. They might a good meal if they wind up useless._ Alucard's mischievous tone put her on alert. This wasn't a simple demonstration of her vampiric ability. This was a test, wasn't it?

"You don't think there might be a reason these guys are saying there are monsters here?"

She stood ready and alert at Integra's side, finally noticing the large group of grown men starting at both of them. For a moment, she considered them, as some seemed to be doing with her. None of them seemed terrible, younger than the original soldiers at least.

Integra cleared her throat, interrupting their little conversation. "Gentlemen, whatever rumors you've heard on the subject of monsters is true." There was a sudden hushed whisper through the group, but Integra continued regardless, "Here at the Hellsing Organization, you'll be dealing with the supernatural whenever it comes to our attention. We mainly handle the threat of vampires, which I can assure you is no easy task."

Some laughed at those proud statements, and while Seras was wary of them, she wasn't entirely focused on this whole charade.

Her Master was nearby, watching. Something he wasn't supposed to do, Integra had explicitly stated as such. She wasn't about to tell her, of course, but she was going to find him. It was a fun little game they played when training and missions weren't happening; a warped hide and seek.

Cautiously, she walked beside the wall. Every few, careful steps she took, she closed her eyes and listened, beyond the men's disbelief, Integra's calm tone, and every heartbeat, slow and fast.

Somewhere, in the middle of it all, she could sense his movements. Quiet. Deliberate.

 _Police Girl..._

 _Yes?_

"Police Girl!" Integra yelled, commanding Seras' immediate attention.

"Sir?" She pressed her back to the wall, straightening up and forcing herself to pay attention. She gave a sheepish smile towards the confused soldiers.

"These men want proof. Show them." The order sent a shiver down Seras' spine, and she wasn't entirely sure why.

"R-Right," Seras replied, understanding despite ignoring the entire conversation. She looked between Integra and the mercenaries, then turned to the wall behind her. Raising a nervous hand, she grit her teeth and lunged. A few gasps were all she heard before she entered the familiar darkness between the walls.

And from there, she saw him sneak above her head. A deep purr of intrigue was all it took for her to pounce up to the ceiling. All she needed was a light tug at his coat before he quickly gave up, much to her surprise.

It was too late, however, for her to react before that familiar chill in her bones returned. That feeling came from her Master, the sneaky-!

She fell through the ceiling with a yelp, but thankfully still held onto her Master's coat, bringing him down with her.

The resulting heap of vampire startled everyone but Integra, who wasn't amused in the slightest.

"Alucard, I explicitly ordered you stay out of this meeting," she snapped, glaring at the two monsters.

"I was, my Master. The Police Girl was the one that dragged me out against your orders." Alucard stood, pulling up with him a giggling Seras. He let her go once she started squirming, attentive to her actions as she disappeared into the floor.

He turned his attention to the soldiers, grinning like a madman. The Police Girl had wandered towards them, hovering in the ceiling above. "Besides," he added, "I was interested in seeing these new soldiers for myself. I'm sure they'll do better than the last ones and not die early, yes?"

Integra sighed. None of the mercenaries had interjected or protested, so for now, that would hopefully be the case. "Right, then. If any of you have any sort of question or concern you'd like to put forward, now would be the time."

"Captain Bernadotte," one of the more frightened whispered to the man sitting lazily in a chair. "You can't seriously be expecting us to work with real monsters, right? We can't fight shit like–"

"If that's what you're concerned about, I can assure you, the Police Girl and Alucard are nothing like the enemies you'll be facing. They're simply examples. The more common variety vampire is much weaker than they are." Integra shrugged her shoulders as if to shake away the man's doubt.

"Ah," the one referred to as Captain Bernadotte spoke, "so they are just the worse case scenarios?"

"If it unfortunately ever came down to it, then yes." Integra noticed Seras poke her head out from the ceiling and glared at her before she returned to hiding.

"Then there shouldn't be much of a problem." Captain Bernadotte mimicked Integra's shrug, though smugger than she had been.

Seras hopped down and onto Alucard's back, resting her head on his shoulder. She ignored the concern and fear radiating from the humans in the room and relaxed herself with that strange scent of blood her Master always had; raw power, centuries of it, intermingling in every shadow that made him who he was.

"Not yet anyway."

* * *

Everything was so pristine, shiny, clean, and blindingly bright.

The sunlight reflected off the polished floor, beaming through the ceiling's curved, glass windows.

Seras yawned, rubbing as much sleep out of her eyes as she could while slowly following behind her Master. It was far too early in the day. She was practically one step away from falling against her Master's back or onto the floor and claiming all those lost hours of sleep.

This meeting Integra was having with the Vatican leader, Maxwell, if Seras recalled. Did it have to be in the middle of the day? Not sunset or a nice early sunrise?

"Police Girl," Alucard murmured, a deep hum of consideration following.

She'd shut her eyes, not at all aware of anything, and, as a result, bumped right into him when he stopped. At his chuckle, she opened one eye and whimpered.

"If you'd like, Police Girl, I could return you back to your coffin. I'm sure my Master wouldn't mind the quick trip." Despite his teasing tone, his offer was genuine. He knew she'd recently become accustomed to sleeping during the day, after years of doing the opposite. Being forced out of the routine irked her, it seemed.

"I'm... fine," she replied, fighting a losing battle just to keep her eyes open.

He pulled her up to walk in front of him, keeping a steady hand on the small of her back to lead her around.

They were wandering the museum, passing the time while his Master spoke with Enrico Maxwell. It had been at Seras' half excited suggestion that they do so, as well as Walter's curt agreement on it, that lead them to aimlessly walking around. Of course, now that the drowsiness had fully set in, Seras was starting to regret having ever gotten up today.

"Police Girl," hissed Alucard, right into her ear, placing his hands on her shoulders to rouse her.

She squeaked, practically jumping out of her skin at the feeling of his breath on her ear. It almost broke through the lethargic barrier, but then she realized they hadn't even moved from when he placed her in front of him.

"Master," she groaned, half-lidded eyes glaring at the elder vampire. They glowed a bright, deadly red for a mere second before she closed them again. Just trying to keep her eyes open was giving her a headache, not to mention the sunlight whenever she actually accomplished that first task.

Hearing that same baritone call out to her again made the ache worse, spread to the back of her skull even.

She opened her eyes again and gasped.

Behind her Master was a tunnel of blood and flames. Embers and crimson dancing through the air and caking the ground.

Too real and too unbelievable, she opened her eyes again, this time finding difficulty. She found herself slumped against her Master's chest and groaned again.

The fact that that felt like reality...

Alucard picked up his drowsy Childe and rested her on his back, like she tended to do so often lately. As her arms slowly wrapped around his neck, he heard her murmur something unintelligible, which he responded to with a quiet purr of agreement. He found it wise to do so, despite not knowing what she was saying. Once she fully resigned to sleep, he started walking back to where he'd left his Master with Walter.

"Ah, you're back," Walter said with a bit of surprise in his tone. He stood near the entrance to a cafe garden, on watch and rather nervous of something.

"Yes. The Police Girl finally admitted she couldn't stay awake any longer. I came to make sure things were going smoothly before I left to put her in her coffin," Alucard replied, shifting his gaze to see his Master and the Vatican leader through the glass doors.

"Yes, well, about that. I'd severely advise against that decision."

"And why is that?"

Walter's tension made sense now, but the reason still eluded him. The butler's gloved fists tightened a little more and he grit his teeth. "Seems Iscariot came as prepared as we were. Anderson is somewhere around here, practically looking for a fight with you."

Red eyes gleamed through thick yellow glasses. He remained calm, however, as to not wake his fledgling. "Well, as much as I'd to..."

"You'd rather not disturb Miss Victoria, am I correct?" Walter smiled. "My word, Alucard. You've grown quite a fondness for the girl as of late."

"She's been exceeding my expectations. Eager to learn, fight, kill, much more than I thought she would be." Taking a quick glance at the sleeping vampire, Alucard couldn't help his own light smile forming.

"Why did you turn her, anyway? What do you intend to do with her?" The butler crooked a curious brow.

"I saw something in her that night in Cheddar I've only encountered once before. Something beyond the blood, pain, and fear that I believed had been lost in you humans," Alucard explained, tipping his head ever so slightly and feeling the soft brush of Seras' hair on his cheek.

"As for my intentions," he continued, "that rests on her decisions, as always. Whether she decides to continue down this path or forge a different one, it doesn't concern me. The Police Girl has proven herself to be capable from the moment she became a creature of the night."

"So you're saying you've never had anything beyond a simple expectation for her? Part of me doubts you didn't at least have something in mind once she started drinking blood."

Alucard looked back to the butler, expression largely consisting of contemplation, with a twinge of annoyance. Perhaps he was becoming soft, readable at the very least, because of his time with Seras. He certainly hadn't intended for that to be the case.

"She's not like them," he growled, narrowing his eyes at the ex-vampire hunter. "She's not like any of them. Not like _her_ , especially."

Walter sighed, clearly understanding the vampire's meaning. "Of course she isn't. Miss Victoria seems far more loyal than those women ever were."

* * *

Eyeing the empty chair in front of her, Seras drank the final remnants of her second daily blood pack and sighed. She slumped into her seat, resting her head in her arms.

Her sleep schedule was still recovering from that damned meeting at the museum, and all these preparations for whatever was coming next left her rather confused. Sleep was a luxury at this point, as her Master had decided he'd train her whenever he wasn't busy with the preparations. That meant training long past sunrise and exhaustion that left her dead in her coffin right before noon.

She wasn't complaining much about the training. It was when Alucard was busy that upset her.

It was so _boring_ , sitting around in her room, doing absolutely nothing.

No need to train the mercenaries, Integra insisted! They're already experienced enough!

Can't practice with her guns anymore! Not even the bloody Harkonnen! She hadn't even touched the damn thing since she got it! What was point in having it then?

Not allowed to leave the premises! Too many plans! We'll need you soon, everyone said! When was soon? Who the hell knows!

At this point, Seras didn't even bother leaving her room unless it was training. Training and sleep were blessings in disguise, even if one of them ruined the other. All this time, waking up at the same hour before evening, enjoying breakfast, waiting, waiting, enjoying dinner, waiting, training, then dropping right back into her coffin like a real corpse, just to start the whole damn cycle over again.

How her Master dared to live more than a century was a mystery she had yet to solve. In the amount of time she'd been stuck waiting though, she was bound to find an answer _soon enough_!

She buried her face in her arms and groaned. This was monotonous.

"When eternities of darkness rear their heads at you, Police Girl, I'm sure you'll understand why patience is such a valuable virtue to have," spoke her Master through the walls.

When she lifted her head, he appeared behind the empty chair, wearing clothes she had never seen him in before. She had to admit there was something comfortingly normal to the garb, despite knowing who was behind it all.

"Is it time?" she asked rather hopefully.

"Unfortunately, training will have to wait for now." Before she could voice her complaints, he added, "However, the preparations are complete."

"Oh, thank god," she grumbled, holding her head in her hands.

Alucard sat in the empty chair, watching her over his glasses rather than through them. "I thought," he began, finding a small flicker in her eyes as he spoke, "you might like what's to come. My Master has learned of our enemy's whereabouts. Brazil."

She straightened, the hint of a smile appearing.

Amused by this, Alucard said, "Think of this as... A secret third gift."

"A vacation to Brazil? Really?" Seras questioned through excited giggles.

"More or less. They wish to invite us into battle, sending a ghoul army to our doors. We come knocking at theirs. Simple as that," he answered with a light shrug.

"And that took you almost two weeks to decide?" Her mocking tone was delightful to hear.

"Finding a flight to Brazil wasn't entirely easy, Police Girl, especially with the specifications we need. As well, reservations had to be made." He pressed a gloved finger to her forehead, though gentle in his action.

Pushing his hand down, her smile disappeared and something akin to realization took its place. "There's still something else you're not telling me. And I feel as though I won't like it at all."

"Oh? How perceptive of you, Police Girl." Alucard grinned. "Yes, there is one little detail of this small trip I haven't told you. Nothing too terrible, if we're being honest. You see, this flight goes right over the Atlantic, and you know what I've told you about our kind and-"

"Running water? Of course I do. The trip to Northern Ireland wasn't exactly fun, you know," she reminded him. "But I'm stronger now than I was then. I think I can handle the trip, no?"

"As much as I'm sure you could, it's a risk I'm not willing to take."

"Well, it's not much your choice, is it?" She crossed her arms over her chest.

He wasn't expecting such a reply and was thus silenced. He pursed his lips and breathed out through his nose, a breath he obviously didn't need to take.

Her defiance wavered. "I'm sorry, Master. I... I didn't mean to-"

"No, you're right. You are a vampire all your own. If you wish to sit with me during the flight, that is fine."

Seras cast her gaze to the table between them. After a moment, she asked, "What exactly is the alternative? Out of curiosity, of course." Her eyes brightened with child-like interest, even going so far as to swing her legs a little to further her innocence.

Alucard chuckled, watching her facade crumble into a shy, hopeful smile as she looked back up at him. "You'd be hidden in your coffin for the flight. We figured since it was already being flown in with mine, you'd be safer in it than not. Merely a suggestion."

Slumping back into her seat, Seras actually considered it, much to his surprise. Her gaze locked on him, mentally debating herself, until finally, she pouted. "F-Fine."

"Hm?"

"I'll stay in the coffin. If you think it's better, then I'll do it."

* * *

The confined space was so agonizingly familiar.

The blood smelled so sweet, mixed with another flavor. So tempting, she had to come closer.

The trail was like a centipede, crawling along the floor, then onto the ceiling, back down and onto tiled kitchen floors now. There were larger spots every once in a while, spaces she assumed were the origins, where the bodies used to lie.

She found one against the wall, and above it were long faded photos, tilted, and some hanging on loose threads. There were actually some blood droplets on the nearby fireplace, splattered on the pictures there as well. These were similar to the others, but the more she eyed this scene, the more something in her didn't feel well.

She assumed it was hunger from all the blood around. A gloved finger dipped into the drops on the fireplace and moved to her mouth. One taste wouldn't hurt. She was a vampire after all.

Wherever she was, there seemed to have been some sort of chaos.

Moving along, she found another point of origin, this one much larger. It was almost as big as a body, which made sense. Whoever died here, in the middle of what appeared to be a living room, sure took a nasty blow.

Kneeling down, she was about to take another taste from the origin spot, when she heard something.

Creaking of wood, unmistakable.

Searching the room for the source wasn't hard. It was right in front of her.

The smell of blood momentarily faded.

Resounding bangs. Those were... gunshots. She could smell those too. Only those, in fact.

Laughter. Male.

Familiar.

A whimper.

She noticed a single, teary, blue eye staring at her. She stood, not moving beyond that.

One blue eye became two. A hand, small and trembling.

Then the screams. Anguished, a multitude of screams. A shrill one, young, overpowered the rest.

They all came charging at her, through this child, who wielded nothing but a fork.

Without thinking, she grabbed the poor thing and threw it at the wall, a powerful crack the only sound of impact. Before it even made it to the floor, by her mother, the whole scene became a bright flash of light, blinding her.

"Misbehavior like this won't be tolerated here. Hurting others, breaking things, mistreating your elders. You're quite the unruly little creature."

She gasped, opening her eyes to the shadow of a man, vague and almost long forgotten.

"Throwing stones, punching people, shooting them, tearing out their hearts, drinking blood." The figure flickered in and out for a moment, trying to retain shape. "Why even claim you're right when even a maniac can see what you really are?"

She panicked, slashing at the vague form's presumed throat.

The desk between them disappeared, the shadows racing to compensate for change, time, space.

"There is so much to you. I see potential, wasted on your poor choices. How do you think he'd react? Seeing you like this? He'd want you to do better, achieve greater things."

"Shut up!" she screeched, attempting to swipe at him again.

The figure flashed backward, keeping distance, but staying poised. "At least consider what I'm saying. You're becoming more worthless than you realize. How disappointing. Pathetic, cowardly, irredeemable. A monster."

"Be quiet!"

"A loathsome nuisance."

"I said, shut your damn mouth!"

"A vampire."

She screamed and pounced, clawing wildly, not even paying attention anymore.

When she finally calmed down, she stumbled to stand, dizzy from anger. A strange light shined at her feet, coming closer. From behind her. The shadows fled from her and it, clearly not at all affected by her attack.

More voices, these unintelligible but still male.

The air cooled. The moon loomed like a large, observant spotlight on a stage.

She shivered, recognizing this more than any other thing she'd encountered. Looking over her shoulder, she tensed.

The voices went silent. Something resembling that church tried to mold itself into existence before her. Mocking her, just like everything else.

She saw that innocent little Kitten enter the scene, following orders and the path to the building. The large double doors eased open, the beam of a flashlight shining around.

"Is this it?" hissed a strange voice from within.

The light hit the shadows, a being forming from them.

The wary Kitten raised her gun, easily frightened and shaking.

"Oho? Are you sure about that?"

From behind the poor Kitten, she watched the familiar gleam of red appear. Red eyes. Blood surrounding the figure.

"No," she whispered, "no, no, no."

The man took one step, then another, grinning like a madman.

The Kitten whimpered, frozen still in fear.

"This... So this is how you see things? How you see yourself?" The man appeared before his next victim, the poor, naive girl. The human.

"No!"

"How you see me?"

Her Master glared at the human, then at her.

It was only then that she realized he wasn't referring to the Kitten. He could see her.

He snapped his fingers, the Kitten dropping her gun and stepping aside. Her eyes lost their fear, their bright blue color, all life faded away.

"Why am I in this memory, Police Girl?" he asked. "Of all days, nights, times, moments, and places, you chose this one. Why make me the centerpiece of this warped nightmare?"

"I-I don't know!" she cried, shrinking back and trembling like her human memory had.

"Are you simply afraid of me, even after all I've done for you?"

"I don't... No! I'm not! I'm not afraid of you." She whimpered under his scrutinous gaze, well within the darkness of his shadow.

He leaned in, leveling his gaze with hers. They were mere centimeters apart. "Who are you?"

"Wh-What?"

He straightened and stepped back behind the still shell of her former self. "Who are you?"

She stared at the quiet Kitten, by all accounts dead and gone from this world. "I don't... know."

He pet the Kitten's head, then snapped his fingers.

Two more past memories appeared. The frightened child from the scene of bloody murder and the stoic, almost murderous gaze of the girl from the orphanage.

"Who are you?" he repeated.

It was then she noticed the eyes.

The moon had disappeared. The air grew colder and colder until she wasn't sure what she was shaking from.

Dozens of hungry, red eyes surrounded them, watching her, waiting.

"I... I really don't... know." She finally burst into tears, almost falling to the ground.

A hand held her up, steady, lifting her gaze up to meet his.

"M... Master?"

There were a thousand emotions in those red eyes. Recognition, understanding, longing, care, sadness, anger.

Hope.

"Of course you don't," he murmured, his thumb rubbing away a few of her tears. "I'm not quite sure either. No one can be. Not entirely. Not yet."

"Sir?"

"In time, you will learn. We all will. Not yet, little Police Girl. You must have patience."

She stepped closer, resting her head against his chest. She felt his arms around her, holding her tight.

This was calm, gentle, nice. Finally quiet. Finally happy.

"Yes, sir."

* * *

Seras heard a door close and started, bumping her head against the underside of her coffin lid.

Groaning and rubbing the point of impact, she fell back to the cozy interior of her coffin and closed her eyes again. Part of her refused to wake up and she really wanted to listen to it. She was so warm and comfortable.

The lid squeaked open and she opened an eye to see who dared do such a thing.

"Police Girl, we're here," her Master declared, before letting it thump closed.

She groaned again, reluctantly pushing the lid off and stretching like a cat. As she wiped the grogginess from her eyes, she peered up at her Master, who grinned and walked over to a nearby chair to sit and relax. Much like he always seemed to do when there was nothing better happening.

"How was your rest?" he asked.

"Eventful," she said, "but nice." As she crawled out, she observed the dimly lit room. "Where's Mister Bernadotte?"

"Unfortunately for the Captain, he won't be staying with us." He removed his glasses, setting them down on the table next to his chair. He was still in that suit she hadn't seen before this little trip. The coat was even hanging over his chair.

"Any reason as to why?" she spoke sarcastically.

"Master's orders," was all he answered with.

She rolled her eyes and walked past him, deciding to explore what the suite had to offer.

This place certainly was beautiful. If she hadn't known whose money actually went into getting it, she would've thought she was still dreaming.

The windows were huge, and she could see almost half the city and the sunset at the same time. The view alone was gorgeous.

She couldn't wait to see all of it.

* * *

The summer sun's radiant warmth still lingered in the night. The streets and sidewalks were filled with people, moving on their own terms and speaking either a language she didn't understand or one she was told not to respond to.

Rio de Janeiro's strangeness only made her want to see more. She wanted to skirt down the alleyways and lurk about the streets. The buildings were different, the people were different, even the trees were different.

For now, all she could do was sit on the rooftop and wait. Her Master's stood nearby, looking above rather than below like she was.

They were apparently waiting for Integra's orders before they would be able to wander about the city. After her Master received the call, she'd be able to see the sights personally.

For now, this practically bird's eye view of the world beneath her would do. He'd decided to appease her curiosity somewhat by letting her sit up here.

The humans were like ants. She could see them, perfectly defined features and frightened faces, down below. Maybe rats, since they seemed to be piling onto each other, in a way. A crowd of them, surrounding the hotel.

Wait.

"Master, do you... What are they doing down there?" she wondered.

They had begun to amass quite the crowd now, cars stopping, camera crews appearing. As if the hotel had suddenly been visited by a celebrity or become the scene of a-

There were whispers on the nearby rooftops. She could faintly hear orders, or what sounded like them. When she looked to the other buildings, she saw snipers trained on them.

One of the snipers fired, and Seras narrowly avoided it.

A hand grabbed her from behind, pulling her into the penthouse. She fell onto one of the chairs, confused but alert to her Master's actions.

As he landed, he pulled out his Casull and Jackal, watching the door.

Their footsteps were careful and deliberate. Plans between them were barely audible. Some were so close to the door, Seras could hear their breathing.

The sounds sent a thrill through her she couldn't entirely explain. She could even see Alucard reacting similarly.

Another sniper bullet broke through the window, and once more, Seras dodged it a second before it could land.

She turned her attention to the shattered glass, then the sniper barely poking his head over the roof.

"Where's my rifle?" she asked Alucard, her annoyance evident in her tone.

"By your coffin, I believe." He grinned at the sound of her growls. "Don't like being a target, Police Girl?"

When all he received in reply was a sharp, blood-red glare, he couldn't help laughing even a little.

Ignoring him, she readied her rifle and took aim, mere seconds of practiced, easy preparation. She saw another head pop out over the rooftop, like a mole leaving its home. Before one could say anything to the other, she fired. A sharp twitch and she shot again.

"There," she said, walking over to the other window. She remembered seeing another group on one of the other nearby buildings. "Bloody gnats don't know when to go away, do they?" Repeating her preparation, she heard Alucard's hum of approval right before she fired, making the kill just a little more satisfying.

"They don't know who they're dealing with, clearly. Millennium must have them fooled." Alucard aimed his Casull at the door.

"Are you sure we should be confronting them without consulting Sir Integra?" Seras questioned, realization suddenly dawning on her.

"You ask that after killing three of them already?"

"I wasn't really thinking rationally."

"Good. Irrationality makes battles much more interesting."

Seras rolled her eyes. "Another bit of wisdom from the war monster himself? I'm flattered you choose now to tell me this."

"Don't be so sarcastic, Police Girl. If we don't call upon my Master, then you get to use the Harkonnen."

At the mention of the weapon in question, Seras brightened. Use that stupid cannon? Finally? Oh, it couldn't be true! It was too good to be true! "Really?" she said, her eyes darting to the thing sitting uselessly by her coffin.

She'd almost thrown it against the wall in frustration, but now!

"Ah, ah, ah," Alucard interrupted, turning her attention back to him. "First, I handle the ones at the door. Then you can blast the ones down the hall."

"Really?" she repeated, bouncing at his side with even more enthusiasm.

"It should clear out any stragglers, so yes."

With the promise in mind, she ran over to the cannon, eagerly loading in the first round in what felt like years of owning it.

The door broke open, soldiers filing in and aiming their guns at Alucard specifically. He held still, waiting for their first reactions.

A barrage of bullets tore through him, turning him into light remnants of a body. What was left fell to the floor in a bloody, ruined heap.

Seras bit her bottom lip, finger twitching on the trigger of her cannon. They were going to fire at her next. She could easily take care of them now, but Alucard had ordered her to be patient.

The men reloaded their guns, noticing her.

Fiendish laughter. The soldiers froze, their attention back on the defeated corpse. Most of them were awestruck as the body rose, jerking about as it healed. An arm rose up, gun in hand, and fired once.

One down.

Casull and Jackal in either hand, Alucard grinned and fired twice from each.

Five down.

They were running now, a futile retreat. Two more shots.

Seven.

There was one left, the only one to have actually fled the room. He screamed as he sprinted down, warning the other members of the dangers.

Seras hefted the Harkonnen onto her shoulder, giggling as she took aim, directly at the frightened soldier's heart.

The sound of the blast was spectacular, the cries following becoming screams of the damned. The explosion tore men to pieces, blood caking the walls of the hallway.

Her eyes twinkling with excitement, Seras moved to reload the cannon, only to be pulled back from the ammunition.

"Police Girl," Alucard warned.

"S-Sorry!" She dropped the Harkonnen, raising her hands in mock surrender. Swallowing her excitement, she looked to her Master for his next order.

He gestured towards the door. "Shall we take care of the rest?"

Seras grinned, hissing, "Yes, sir," before following at his side.

* * *

Alucard let another soldier fall, licking his teeth of the blood. He searched for his fledgling, who had become the eager little soldier in the short time they'd made there way through the masses of SWAT team members.

He wasn't even sure if she'd taken a second to actually drink from any of them. Bodies were strewn about, heads blasted open, limbs shot off, blood dripping from every corner of the halls. Quite the mess.

As he reloaded his pistols, he followed the trail of death and screaming.

Stomping over corpses, Seras shot through the last few humans left before actually stopping to acknowledge her Master's presence.

Then she noticed his concern.

"Is there something wrong?" she asked, tilting her head slightly.

"You're not actually drinking from them, Police Girl. What's the fun in slaughter if you can't have a drink after?" He gestured back to the piles of bodies, mirroring her confusion.

"As much as I appreciate the sagely wisdom, I can't exactly take a break to drink when there are more of them running about. I want to actually enjoy my meal in peace, not get shot at or interrupted by more cowards," she explained, deciding then to actually do as he suggested. She was starving, being surrounded by so much blood. When was her last real meal, she wondered before taking a bite.

"There is a way to drink quickly."

She perked up at notion, releasing her kill to look at him once more.

"Not exactly as satisfying as tearing through flesh, but it makes collecting the blood much less of a hassle," he continued.

Seras noticed some of the blood at her feet moving unnaturally towards her Master, realization immediate. She could vaguely recall this behavior from back during the Valentine incident. He'd done this before, she just wasn't sure how yet.

Seeing her keen eyes trying to figure out his tricks, he stepped closer and knelt down next to her.

Between them was an imperfect circle of blood, collecting from the nearby bodies until it was a reasonable size. He tapped a finger against the side closest to him, some droplets obeying and inching closer.

She hummed, considering his demonstration. There had to be something she wasn't entirely seeing, not yet anyway. Was it like walking through walls; sinking through shadows between rooms towards a destination? This had to be somewhat like it.

"Try it," he said.

Of course he was able to do it so effortlessly the first time she'd seen him do it. He'd taken an entire hallway's worth of blood into him in a matter of seconds.

Placing a hand next to the circle, she imagined it moving towards her thumb. No success.

This little lesson was a bit more cryptic than the others, that's for sure. She couldn't pinpoint exactly what he'd done to bring the blood closer.

"Think of it as already a part of you," he hinted, taking pleasure in her furrowed brow of concentration.

Doing as instructed, she grit her teeth and tried again.

The whole circle trembled, but beyond that, held firm.

"You're putting too much effort into it. It's a lot less difficult than you're making it out to be."

Seras relaxed, breathing without thinking.

Like a snake, the blood began to move, uncoiling itself and slithering towards Seras' hand. After what felt like an eternity, the circle disappeared into her hand.

Alucard watched his fledgling smile and look to him for approval, which he gave in the form of a simple nod. Slowly, their path of carnage began to disappear between the two of them. He took the most, being the more experienced of the two.

"There are other abilities that use the same line of thinking. Healing, for example," he explained as they both stood up. "It's much easier to control your own blood, so it's much less effort, but the difficulty lies in healing larger wounds and reconnecting torn off body parts."

"Like a head?" she joked, only to receive an annoyed glare, much to her confusion. Probably a touchy subject, if she had to guess. She continued to follow at his side, now that the floor was empty of living humans.

"Nonetheless," he continued, "it's an essential ability to learn as a vampire. Tricky, but necessary for survival."

"Are there any others I should know?" she inquired.

He mulled over the question, almost 600 years of knowledge and experimentation swimming through his thoughts. "Hypnosis lies in that same vein, I suppose," he answered rather hesitantly.

"As in, controlling people's minds or putting them to sleep?"

"Both."

Seras stopped, surprised by his casual response.

"If you're worried, no, vampires cannot control one another that way. Vampiric hypnosis only works on humans," he assured, continuing his stroll towards the elevator. Of course, he wouldn't tell her about the actual way vampires could control one another. Especially since he could, in theory, easily control her without much thought, being her sire. It was a trick he wasn't entirely fond of using on his fledgling, considering how well-behaved and eager she already was.

With a sigh of relief, she sprinted after him. "Because we can control their blood?" she guessed when she made it into the elevator with him.

"Not exactly. It's far too complicated to teach without a willing subject and time, which at the moment we have neither of."

"We could always use one of the mercenaries back home," she suggested with a mischievous smile.

He laughed, petting her head. "That's a bit too devious, Police Girl, and too easy. You need an actual challenge in order to learn."

"Integra then?"

" _Police Girl._ "

"It was just a joke, Master," she insisted through her teasing.

Seras wasn't a complete fool. She definitely understood by this point that Integra Hellsing was a force she couldn't compete with unless she wanted to end up like the enemies they faced. It was certainly annoying, that her Master's master could compare her to lowlife vampires. How easily Integra could just decide that a simple mistake was enough to have Seras at the barrel end of the Jackal.

Well, if this little fight didn't get her into trouble, she'd be counting the days until some other minor thing led up to her final death.

Reloading her rifle, Seras listened as the chime of each floor passing began to slow in frequency. When she looked up to check, she realized they were nowhere near the ground floor.

There was a loud groaning from all around them, the elevator clearly upset by an outside force. Metal screeched and the elevator lights flickered before shutting off.

Thankfully they could still see.

"They cut off the power," she realized.

The elevator continued to whine, something else acting on it.

Alucard growled, peering up at the ceiling and listening.

Seras could hear it too. The scuffle of shoes, scraping of some kind, and then something like the flapping of a dozen birds' wings. Right above them.

"Wait, are they-" Before Seras could finish her sentence, the elevator screeched once more at the snapping of one of the ropes. There was also the sound of an explosion following.

Both vampires bolted into the wall, Seras feeling the rush of wind as the elevator fell to the bottom floor before the darkness surrounded her.

"They knew we were heading down," Alucard said with a satisfied smirk. "Clever fools, I'll give them that." He began walking, and to Seras' shock and amazement, he was walking along the barrier wall, up towards the roof of the hotel.

"M-Master?"

"Come along, Seras. Our true enemy has made himself known."

 _He makes it look so easy_ , she thought to herself, watching and trying to understand how he was doing this new trick. Clearly, it was something like walking through walls, which she'd figured out under pressure rather easily. This had to be no different, right?

Alucard made it back onto the roof, noticing immediately that he wasn't alone.

Standing by the edge of the building, admiring the view, much like Seras had, was a tall man.

"Evening, vampiro," said the man, looking over his shoulder at Alucard, a mischievous grin on his face.

"Good evening. Were you the one who told those humans to try killing us?"

"Unfortunately for them, yes. Try is all they could do, all they were meant to do." The man turned to fully face the vampire, bowing before pulling a card out of his sleeve. "You see, Mister Alucard, I am Tubalcain Alhambra and by the orders given to me, I am supposed to kill you and bring back whatever samples of your blood remain to my superiors."

Alucard grinned, thrill evident as much as the hunger in his eyes. "Well then, Alhambra, unfortunately for you, I cannot be killed easily. You can try, as try is all you can do, but in the end, like that rascal superior of yours, you will be defeated."

Without warning, the fight began, Alhambra flinging cards, Alucard blasting them to shreds. When cards landed on the rooftop or Alucard's body, they exploded. It wasn't that difficult for Alucard to heal himself, but that gave his enemy the opportunity to fling more cards, which meant he had no time to heal himself.

Finally, Seras had figured out her Master's wall walking trick and had made her way up to see what the commotion was all about. She poked her head out for a second, only to hide again as cards exploded like shrapnel.

With no other choice, she stayed in the shadows, listening and following her Master's movements, which mirrored the enemy's.

 _Sir, what do I do?_ she called out to him telepathically.

 _I'll take care of this, Police Girl. You go find that mercenary captain and contact Integra._

The orders were strict, and she had no reason to question them, so she obeyed. With her rifle held tight, she snuck out of the darkness between walls and slid down the side of the building, keeping herself hidden from the crowds once she landed.

Cautious of the soldiers out front, she pressed her body against the wall and waited. After a small, nervous gulp, she hissed in mock pain, kicking a foot against the ground to create a disturbance.

Sure enough, one of the men took the bait and wandered to the alley she was hidden in.

If hypnotizing humans was similar to controlling blood, then this shouldn't be too difficult to do, right?

She pictured it somewhat like the circle of blood, raising a hand to help. It was a strain, lurking about in the darkness trying to defy the laws of gravity had already done a number on her energy, but once the man saw her, he barely got a word out before his eyes glowed a dull orange.

Smiling, and keeping as silent as she could, she walked up to him and whispered a command into his ear. Slowly, almost like a ghoul, he stumbled out of the alleyway and towards the rest of his coworkers, who seemed to not notice his absence.

They seemed a bit confused and worried about him at least, but apparently his words were enough to persuade them.

The explosions on the rooftop had died down considerably. A concern, but not one she was entirely focused on.

The crowds were beginning to disperse, the reporters having been told that the "terrorists" had been killed by the SWAT team and that the hotel would be completely evacuated of guests and staff until the investigation and clean up was finished.

Unfortunately for them, Seras and- hopefully- her Master were still alive. Once she found Captain Bernadotte, she'd be able to call Integra.

Nodding to herself to boost her confidence, she strode out into the open.

And suddenly, an explosion much larger than normal happened, a police car turned to destroyed metal and flames.

The crowds ran off much faster than before, much more chaotically. In the scramble of people, she could see a familiar face.

"Captain! Was that you?" she called, running up to see him. She was honestly glad he'd created such a huge disturbance. Now no one could hear them over their own fear and screams. With her vampiric hearing, she could concentrate on the Captain's voice alone in all the ruckus.

"Of course, cher. Integra contacted me after you and your batshit Master started shooting up the hotel. I was supposed to create a distraction earlier but you two made it damn near impossible for me to even get here." He lit a cigarette, then stuffed his hands into his pockets rather casually, as if this madness was a daily occurrence.

"In... Integra," she spoke slowly but clearly. "Was she upset?"

"With you two? She almost sounded like a banshee, yelling in my ear like that. I don't think she's as angry as she's acting, but it's not my place to say."

Seras wasn't particularly mad about having predicted the rage that woman would fly into. She simply hoped her Master wouldn't mention the fact that she'd been the technical catalyst of the firefight.

Crossing her arms over her chest, Seras sighed.

"Great," she said with a small roll of the eyes. "Let's just-"

Another loud explosion, the cracking of pavement following, coming from right behind her. She turned around and, once the dust settled, saw her Master lying like a broken toy in a small crater the impact of his fall created. He was bleeding as well, but still alive, from what she could tell.

He lumbered to his feet, laughing. His body glowed as his healing began. He gazed up at the rooftop, then followed the form of his enemy as it made its way down to him.

"M-Master!"

"Stay back, Seras!"

"But-" She didn't have time to respond, backing away as a group of officers surrounded her and the Captain.

"P-Put your hands up now! You two are under arrest!"

She heard the Captain whisper a few curses as he pressed his back against hers. Biting her bottom lip, she kept her eyes trained on the man in front of her.

Like the rest of them, he looked rather nervous, terrified even. He tried to retain his composure, but one of his eyebrows was twitching. A nervous tick? Or perhaps he was reconsidering at the sight of what appeared to be a confused, innocent young woman?

Following his words, Seras held her hands up, but she otherwise kept still, watching this frightened human.

Like before, she strained to focus her energy on what she wanted, though having done it once made feeling for the power again slightly easier.

She couldn't actually give this one orders either, if she even accomplished her want in the first place. Right now, she could only hope silent persuasion and repeating the order in her mind would make him do it.

Then she noticed his eyes glow orange and the gun in his hands rattled as he mentally fought against her.

Without much warning, he lifted his gun up to his head, cackling like a psychopath before shooting himself.

The others gasped, some even screamed, but Seras took the moment of shock to move to the next part of her improvised plan. If her heart were still functioning, it'd be racing with each quick decision she was making, and the insane fact that she just made a man kill himself.

It definitely wasn't what she'd asked for, but it was something.

Her hands twitched, focusing now on the blood. Most of it was either dripping from the body or splattered onto the officers next to him. Moving it to her wasn't difficult, as it was already naturally flowing her way.

However, if her hopes were true, she didn't want it to entirely come to her.

At her mental command, the blood began to coalesce in front of her, bubbling up as if trying to become a new being.

The officers were all watching this strange magic at work, and the Captain as well.

"Now," she murmured, praying the blood obeyed as she wanted.

Though not precisely what she'd asked, the blood on the other officers reacted, cutting off their heads. Like a ripple effect, the continued blood splatters immediately killed the next ones, until the rest of the circle was either dead or had run off.

"Holy shit," the Captain cursed, taking a step away from Seras.

"Oh, relax," she grumbled, grabbing one of the abandoned guns on the ground. Her attention was back on the fight between her Master and the man she assumed was from Millennium.

Things were... well, she _could_ say improving, but the state of her Master was still just as bad as when he'd fallen. Thankfully, their enemy was looking just as beaten. Not entirely down yet, but it was something.

"Mister Alucard, how much longer will you fight? Surely by now, you've lost enough blood to consider surrender at least, no?" Alhambra mocked with a lopsided grin. Despite his facade of confidence, there were beads of sweat on his brow and he was breathing faster than when he'd first started.

Alucard laughed. "If you think I'll be giving up now, your superiors must not have told you everything about me." His eyes gleamed with a new surge of power, his wounds disappearing.

"Wh-What?"

He had given some attention to his fledgling's antics behind him. Hell, he could smell the fresh blood, the madness.

 _Master, please, take_ some _of the blood at least,_ she had suggested through their connection. She was worried about him, despite what she knew about him. It was adorable.

He wasn't denying the charitable donation though. Licking his fangs, Alucard let this new energy flow through him.

Alhambra, now terrified of the perfectly healed monster, flung a dozen more cards at him.

Alucard hadn't lifted his guns to stop them. However, he didn't need to as they didn't even make contact with him.

Seras had fired down as many as she could, the others completely missing Alucard.

Realizing that he was now outnumbered, Alhambra growled and aimed his next volley of cards at the Police Girl and her human companion.

"Miss Victoria," the Captain urged, noticing Seras frantically moving to reload the gun.

"I know, I know! It's fine!" She dropped the clearly useless weapon and went to grab another. As fast as she could, she shot at as many of the dagger-like playing cards out of the air before any could hit them. One zipped past them, exploding against the remains of the destroyed police vehicle.

By this point, Alucard had released the first restriction on his power. He stepped closer to the pseudo-vampire, hissing and grabbing him by the neck.

"It was foolish of you to try and fight that which cannot be killed by a monster, Alhambra." As the man squirmed and kicked in his grasp, Alucard aimed his gun right at his opponent's forehead.

Alhambra held out his last three cards, not going down without a fight.

His arm was shot clean off, cards blown up in his fingers and blood spurting out of his shoulder. Two bullets.

He screamed in terror, silenced when Alucard bit into his throat.

Within moments, their enemy was in flames, familiar blue ones like that brother Seras had killed. Only dry, charred scraps remained of what was once Alhambra.

And yet Seras was still a little tense.

Alucard laughed, slowly returning to his regular form.

"S-Sir?" Seras stepped closer, clearly confused.

He turned and looked to his fledgling and the Captain, making the human flinch back in fright. "We have to leave before the authorities return, Police Girl. My Master will have our heads if we keep drawing attention to ourselves."

"As if she won't already," he heard her whisper to herself before following behind him.

She urged for the Captain to come along, but after a quick decision between them all, the mercenary was tasked with finding transport to the dingy hotel he was staying at while the vampires took care of their coffins and weapons.

"You were splendid out there, Police Girl."

When the ancient vampire was met with silence, he peered over his shoulder.

He could tell she had something on her mind. Seras had a dazed, far-off look in her eyes, a look he'd seen many others have and even himself. He was curious to check what she was focused on, but didn't really want to pry at the moment.

Likely it had something to do with his Master, since what they'd done tonight was extremely reckless. Who knew what the woman would do once they contacted her or returned to the mansion?

He stopped walking and to his surprise, she did as well. Perhaps she wasn't entirely lost in her thoughts as he'd assumed.

"Police Girl?"

She hummed, eyes looking straight through his once he turned around.

"Is there something troubling your thoughts?"

For a second more, she stayed quiet, before returning to reality and watching him, hesitant.

He was about to comment, but was interrupted by her response, "Master, am I a child or a monster?"

The question honestly caught him off guard, but he immediately knew where this had come from. He had been right in his assumption, it seemed.

"It depends. Which do you wish to be?"

"Neither preferably."

He chuckled at her deadpan reply. "Well, then what is it you want?"

She seemed puzzled by this question, furrowed brow and all. "To... To be? I just-"

"No, no. What do you want, Police Girl?"

"I don't... understand."

"This isn't a question of who you are versus who she thinks you are. It's a question of what you want from her versus what you don't. She's made you upset, and you want to fix that. There's why, now how are you going to fix it? What will you do, Police Girl?"

As his words sunk in, she slowly began to nod, a small smile forming. Wordlessly, she walked past him, settled on this new idea she'd presumably thought up.

He grinned and followed right behind her.


	5. Equals

The heretic howled, hysterical laughter of a madman. He rested back into his seat as satisfaction rolled through his skin in waves. As he gripped the ends of the armrests in tight anticipation, he purred with a deep, unfathomable lust.

"Isn't it glorious, mein doctor? Madness spilling from every bullet wound, feeding these creatures like blood-soaked pigs to the wolves," the man spoke through his excitement.

"Quite the spectacle, Major," the Doctor replied, holding back his twinge of fear for the brutality on the screen.

The Major grabbed his remote, rewinding the recording of the news broadcast. It was rather blurry at first, but from the high vantage point of the helicopter, it was able to show the Police Girl firing at the snipers with ease. Fast forwarding mere seconds later, there was blood splattered onto the broken windows and glowing red eyes disappearing from view.

A dangerous explosion shook the building and the news reporter had attempted to comment something, only to be interrupted by static.

The video switched to one of the cameras down below and the Major sped to the appearance of the strange little vampire appearing in the background.

He paused right at the moment when she looked at the camera.

"This one certainly is, isn't she? The newest Childe of the great Alucard." He giggled. "So innocent and young yet so capable and murderous. I can see why he might have chosen her. Untamable, facing insurmountable odds and crushing them under her boot, hungry for more. I can't wait to see her struggle during the war. She shows promise."

The Doctor's smile almost reflected his superior's. Once the Major continued the feed, he found himself engrossed at the point when the Police Girl exhibited some of her vampiric abilities. "Are you saying she's better than those other women Alucard turned? She doesn't seem to be entirely as barbaric."

"Those others were cowards, frightened school girls playing vampire. This one, she is a true Nosferatu, a deadly shadow at Alucard's side. Just look at how she destroys those weak humans without lifting much more than a finger! How she wields and shoots weapons without hesitation or question! She does not need to be lead by her Master. She is her own.

"Almost a perfect equal to Alucard. Perhaps a reflection of him."

"My Major, do you believe our army can handle two creatures of such power?"

"Of course, Doctor. As long as we work according to plan, we will have our eternal war." The Major rewinded one last time to enjoy the deadly chain reaction caused by the Police Girl's hand.

* * *

"I told you I could carry one of the bags for you, Mister Bernadotte. Just because I can't eat any of it, doesn't mean I can't help."

"Nonsense, cher, I can handle it," the Captain said, struggling to keep the bottle of wine he'd bought tight in his grip while holding two large bags of food in his arms. "And I told you, just call me Pip. Mister makes me feel like I'm getting old and have kids."

Seras rolled her eyes and snatched the wine bottle at least. She knew how much the drink had cost him and she wasn't about to let him lose all that over his pride. She eyed the label, mainly the year, then rolled the bottle from one hand to the other.

"Well, Pip," she replied with emphasis on his name, "I wouldn't really know what that's like anymore."

He looked between her and the bottle, unsure of what to really say in response. Without much thought, he said, "Getting older? I suppose you're not really missing out on much. Every time I wake up in the morning, I end up with back pains and a headache from drinking too much. Feels like I'm eighty."

"And buying more wine suddenly fixes it?" she joked, sarcasm dripping from her words.

"Eh, it helps," Pip replied with a careful shrug.

She went silent, continuously moving the wine from hand to hand as they walked, feeling the cool glass exterior and shifting liquids inside.

"What's it like, cher?"

"What's what like?" she said, suddenly snapping out of her thoughts.

"Being a vampire and drinking blood and all that?" Her silence returned, much to his dismay, but it didn't last as long as the first time.

"It's... different. I mean, of course it is, but not completely, if that makes any sense." She held the wine bottle normally now, almost hugging it close for comfort.

"It doesn't but go on."

She giggled, then continued, "Well, if you could believe it, there was a time when I was hesitant to drink blood and fight monsters after I was turned. Before I'd tasted my first blood, I was terrified of what I would become if I did." She took another second of quiet to think back on all those months ago. "I'd seen what my Master could do and how he behaved- how all these vampires and ghouls behaved- and I thought, would I end up just like them?

"A part of me wanted to go back and change my decisions, any of them, thinking that maybe I could avoid even becoming a vampire. Refuse to drink blood and maybe I'd somehow become human again, I believed. Keep my humanity intact and I'd find a way out of it. But now, that little voice in my head that told me all those things isn't there anymore, as far as I can tell."

"As far as you can tell?" Pip repeated. "Wouldn't you know if..."

"That's the thing," she spoke with a nervous smile, "If it's still there, it's drowned out by dozens of other voices. Once a vampire drinks enough of a person's blood, they collect the soul and it's stuck in your head screaming or crying or trying and failing to get out. They only go quiet once you focus on yourself and calm down or when you try to sleep, but it's... difficult."

"And Alucard... He has that same problem?"

"Probably. I'm not sure. But he is almost 600 years old. He's probably used to all of that." She groaned. "I can't even imagine living that long. Not dying of old age already feels dull, sitting around and waiting all the damn time."

He noticed her choice of words. "Isn't that just immortality?"

Rolling her eyes, Seras answered, "No, it apparently isn't. Trust me. Master says it implies we can't die, which we technically can." She puffed up her chest. "No such thing as immortality, Police Girl." She imitated her Master's deep voice as best as she could, then stuck her tongue out. When Pip's laughter met her ears, she grinned, similar to her Master's manic smirk.

They finally stomped up to the door to the Captain's hotel room, which the two vampires were resting in now as well. At the very least, until Integra and the Organization flew them back home, another little detail Seras wasn't exactly excited for.

Seras had seen some of the sites Brazil had to offer, though undercover, as to not bring any attention to herself, but she was still curious to see more. Besides, anything to delay the inevitable punishment she would be receiving once they got back was perfect in her eyes.

"What the hell happened here?"

Saying the hotel room was a bit of a mess was the understatement of the century. There was a large blood smear on one wall, across from it were bullet holes, and in the middle of it all was Alucard, sprawled on the floor with a paper on his chest.

Seras knelt down next to him, picking the paper up and reading it. She didn't need to look much before she understood.

"Did you two really have to fight in the hotel room of all places?" she questioned, sighing at his mad cackles.

"Looks like our little vacation has irritated the Catholic priest," her Master replied as he stood up.

"And you couldn't take the damn fight elsewhere? You vampires attract way too much trouble to yourselves," Pip complained, inspecting the bullet holes.

 _Unfortunately, yes_ , Seras thought to herself with another exasperated sigh. As she stood, she helped her Master to his feet, even though she knew he didn't need it. Her mind was already back at HQ, arguing for her spur-of-the-moment decision to kill the SWAT team snipers.

Alucard took notice and ruffled her hair in silent assurance. He could tell she'd been troubled by the battle a few days ago and with each passing day, he could sense more worries piling onto each other. No matter what he'd tried to say to ease her thoughts, she still couldn't ignore what he figured wasn't much of a big deal.

His Master would be upset, that was true, but as long as they didn't make much light of the mistake, neither of them would receive heavy punishment. The Police Girl's fear would only make the issue worse, though only marginally.

* * *

His pace sped up. Down the hall, down the hall. He was so excited, there was a light skip in his step. His grin, cruel, a mockery of his enemy's, wider even. His gaze was never locked on any one thing, wild as he thought of the many ways this plan would end.

How thrilling this war would be, more beautiful than he could ever imagine.

"Major! Wait! Slow down, sir," came the Doctor's call as he stumbled behind trying to catch up.

"There is no time, Doctor. We must make haste. We have them chomping at the bit for action, these vampires. They've waited fifty years to fight and feed their insatiable desires and I will not let this impatience wait any longer!"

"D-Does that mean..." The Doctor let his sentence trail off, gulping at the menacing expression on his superior's face.

"My friend, our enemy will have no way of stopping what is to come. England will burn, Hellsing will fall, and Alucard will be nothing more than ash and memory, along with that little pet of his. Things will be better than perfect. Imperfect perfection."

* * *

Things definitely could have gone... better.

Her body was so tense, the overwhelming adrenaline of battle stirred into the basis of fear and doubt. Blood boiled inside of her, fresh and new, hungry for more.

Seras really, really didn't want to be here anymore.

Being back home was nice. The familiarity of England's soil beneath her shoes had been a pleasant greeting once she was free from her coffin again.

Hellsing manor felt like a return home for the holidays to see family, except the judging eyes of one particular family member always lingered on the back of the head.

Seras knew it was inevitable that Integra brought them back into her office to have a stern talking to.

This... This turned out worse than she'd intended.

They'd just returned from the meeting with the Queen of England, things having gone smoothly, minus the interruption from the Major and his messenger. They were just about to prepare to leave as the announcement of a stolen aircraft carrier had come to them; Millennium was right at their heels.

She could say Integra had provoked her, but it wouldn't be entirely true. The woman had ordered her to stay behind with the Wild Geese to protect the manor.

It was the way she'd said so that angered Seras.

And that anger lead to now, the mistake. Almost a century of obedience was pointing a gun at her head, his other arm pressed against her neck, holding her back.

She bared her fangs, a moment after realizing she didn't need to breathe anymore. Her deep crimson eyes flared with the full brunt of annoyance. She was tired, sick even, of this whole mess.

"Say that again!" she screeched, squirming in Alucard's hold and slashing her hand through the open air at Integra.

"You're giving me orders even though you have a gun at your head? You're much more of a fool than I thought." Integra's dismissive tone was grating the fledgling's nerves. She didn't even bother looking at her.

"I absolutely dare you to try and kill me."

"It wouldn't be that hard to do, Police Girl."

" _Without_ the use of your pet vampire, preferably," Seras growled, tugging at Alucard's hand. She looked up at him and softened her expression somewhat, only to be met with an agitated grimace.

Conflicted perhaps?

When she looked back at Integra, she was almost surprised to see the woman had turned around and come closer. Not enough to be in range of a good swipe, unfortunately for Seras.

"If you prefer to be this much of a nuisance" Integra hissed, "then I'll gladly do it myself."

Seras kicked and thrashed once more, wanting to scream, kill, rage more than anything. The blood inside her wanted it so badly, but she needed to stay as calm as possible. She needed to prove a point.

"Well, I wouldn't be such a damn nuisance if you didn't treat me like one!" she snarled back, snapping her razor-sharp teeth.

The arm around her neck flinched, but remained firm.

Even Integra took a small step back, more out of shock than fear.

The hallway was filled to the brim with a new tension.

"If," Seras continued, "you treated me like an actual vampire instead of those sorry excuses for monsters you can just order him to kill, I wouldn't be so annoying to deal with!"

Integra huffed, "You're as much of a monster as you are a-"

"A child? You think I'm still focused on that? I don't care about that! I care that you treat me with some respect and not like some lowlife scum!"

Integra was about to interject but stopped herself.

"At the very least," Seras added, quieter now that she'd gotten her word in, "you could treat me on a similar level to my Master. Or if it's really so difficult for you, then you can have him kill me."

"You're willing to risk your life to prove your point?" Integra questioned.

"If that's what you want to call it."

The Hellsing wasn't entirely sure what that cryptic little reply meant, but the rest of the Police Girl's words weren't baseless.

She wasn't about to admit it aloud, but Seras was downright terrifying. Not nightmare levels of horror like Alucard, but certainly intimidating on her own. The young vampire had clearly taken the time to choose her words during her vacation. Wisened up even. Admirable.

"Fine then."

Her gaze shifted to Alucard, who disengaged at the silent order. He seemed just as surprised as she was, though to the untrained eye it wouldn't appear so. Had he not expected this either?

Seras smiled hopefully.

"You can prove your point by defending the manor."

The smile faltered.

"However, I'm putting you in charge of the Wild Geese, rather than the other way around."

"R-Really?"

"Are we in agreement or not?" Integra pressed, back to that authoritative tone.

This time the tone held a bit of hope rather than expectation. It was much less firm than the previous order, that's for sure.

"Yes, sir!" Seras answered with a cheerful salute.

"Then you're dismissed." And with that, Integra swerved back around on her heel and disappeared down the hall.

The moment of happiness and gratitude didn't last long.

"Ow!" Seras whined, rubbing the new ache on the back of her head. "Alright, alright! I know. I'm sorry. I just... really couldn't stand it." She inched away as her Master's glare darkened. "Your advice worked?" She didn't intend to phase it like a question, but her hopefulness was currently at its peak.

"I didn't tell you to attack her, Police Girl," he growled.

"I know," she repeated. "It was... Irrational, but like you said, irrationality makes things more interesting, right?"

"Don't twist my words, Childe. This is no laughing matter. You threatened my Master and put your life on the line all to prove some petty point. Be thankful you were able to persuade her." His glowing red eyes pierced through his glasses and her as well.

"B-But it wasn't petty. I know my place, sir. At your side, fighting with you, for the Hellsing Organization, the Queen, and the country. I just don't want to be treated like the same freaks we fight all the time," she grumbled, shying away from his anger. As confident as she was, she knew she couldn't stand against his strength.

He relaxed, but still kept the distance between them. "Don't count on your luck next time, Police Girl. You can't be too sure when it'll run out."

"Right, sir. Sorry, sir," she replied dejectedly.

He walked a few steps then phased through the floor, likely heading off to his room to prepare.

Seras stood alone in the hall, staring at the spot Alucard had disappeared through. A grimace formed, hesitation clicked and released, then she slinked down after him.

"Master!" she called out to him. Once she poked her head out through the ceiling of the dark, echoing chamber, she tried again, this time receiving a dismissive, baritone hum in reply.

He closed his coffin and stood, peering up at her. He'd taken his glasses off and his hat as well. He was all at once intimidating and casual.

She landed on his throne of a chair, at first not looking at him directly. As she shook off her nervousness, she bit her bottom lip.

"Speak, Police Girl," he said, suddenly in front of her. She hadn't noticed him coming closer and leaning in. They weren't that far apart now. One erratic twitch forward and she'd hit her head against his.

"Err, um... I just..." she trailed off now that her words completely left her.

He tilted his head in mock curiosity, a small smile playing on his lips. It wasn't like his usual insane smirks, with his fangs on full display and hungry eyes watching his prey. This was gentle, patient despite having other things he needed to do.

"Sir," she began carefully, "I was... thinking–"

"You've been doing a lot of that lately," he noted, straightening and walking around the chair to the other side of the room.

She stifled an annoyed whine and tried again, "I've been thinking, since the meeting with the Queen. You're... They're sending you after that carrier, aren't they?"

"Of course. My Master and the Queen have deemed it necessary that I eliminate the threat." He rummaged through a chest she'd only rarely seen him near. She wasn't sure what was in it, but from what she could see, there were mostly odd, old little trinkets and things, likely from his past.

"And you won't be back for a while."

"Yes. By the time I return, Millennium will have likely begun their attack on London. It's best you prepare yourself and those mercenaries for whatever comes your way. Those are your orders after all." Voice so nonchalant, he pulled out a few battered books and even an old rusted sword, examining the latter rather closely before placing it at his feet.

Seras frowned and walked over to sit next to him, even picking up one of the books to figure out what some of this stuff was all about. "Are you listening to me?" she questioned.

"I am, little one," he insisted, though continuing his search for something clearly important to him.

Her ears twitched at the strange new way he referred to her. It didn't sound malicious or mean like Police Girl tended to be and it wasn't her name, but there was a comfort she couldn't entirely explain in the way he said it. A foreign gentleness, even the subtle hints of an accent, the more she thought about it.

"Then..." She hesitated again, her fingers feeling at the rough book cover as she tried reading the name. She didn't dare look at him directly when she said what she wanted to. She knew she'd lose her words again if she did. Her confidence too. "Can you promise me something, Master?"

"Should it soothe your nerves, yes."

The book was small, a muddy brown color, and the title was written in a language she couldn't understand. The author, to her surprise, was Shakespeare, the only words she could read.

He placed his hand over the cover, insistence that she should focus and speak her mind.

Reluctantly and with a shaky sigh, she looked up at him and said, "Promise me you'll come back safe."

His eyebrows rose.

"Please?" she added to her plea.

His expression softened and he chuckled, taking the book and eyeing the cover before placing it back on her lap, instead of in the chest. "If I must, then yes, little one, I promise I will return to you."

She smiled, relief blossoming from her chest.

"And if you wish to read that book in English," he continued as he went back to his search, "it's called _The Tempest_."

At this, she looked at the book again, her thumb brushing against the title now translated.

"What language is this then?"

"Romanian. I read it quite often, despite its age. That's why it looks the way it does. It's an interesting, lesser-known play, if that what you wish to know," he explained.

She opened the book, finding the small spine barely pushing back like most books tended to do. The letters on the inside were just as scrambled and strange as the front cover, but knowing now what language they were intrigued her all the more.

"Can you teach me when you come back?" she asked, much like an eager child.

He clicked his tongue and replied, "All these requests. I must ask something of you then, little one." He shut the chest, putting the item he was looking for on his other side. Then he focused all his attention on Seras.

She nodded, though unsure of whether she should've or not without knowing what he wanted.

"Follow my Master's orders and protect this manor from danger. That is clear enough to you, yes?" When she nodded again, this time confused, he grinned. "Then you must promise to stay alive and keep my Master safe once she returns to the manor."

"Won't you be back by then?" she asked.

"We can't be too sure. Millennium is cunning enough to capture an aircraft carrier right from under our noses. Who knows what else they have planned for us?" He stood, taking what appeared to be clothing of some kind back to his coffin.

Strange. He usually changed his clothes with his powers, didn't he?

She scurried back to the chair, wanting to keep a respectable distance from his coffin while still being near him. She wasn't sure why, and he never protested against her being a certain distance, but she felt it was only right she did so.

Unsure of what he was doing but not wanting to pry, she went back to the book, trying to see if there were words she could at the very least somewhat understand.

He clicked his tongue again and she looked up to find him looming over her, holding the clothing in his hand still.

"What is that?" she questioned.

"Call it what you will, a gift or rags, but I already have what I need from it. You can have it, if you'd like." He held it out to her.

With a raised brow, she took it and unfolded it. It was an old black cape, a bit dirty and torn up around the edges, but for the most part fine. "Err, thanks?"

"You don't like it?"

"No. I mean, I do, but um... What is this from exactly?" She was surprised at how soft it felt. Curious to try it on, she stood and observed the strange little chain by the collar, presumably what she needed to unhook to do so.

"Back before I was a servant of Hellsing, when I was my own vampire, this cape was one of the ones I wore often. It was... A gift... From someone once important to me, but I don't want to keep it anymore," he explained as he sat down on his throne, flipping through the book she'd grown a similar liking to.

Seras tugged on the silver chain once it rested on her chest, making sure it was securely hooked. She wanted to ask who it was that gave him this honestly rather comfortable cape, but noticed he'd said _once important_ and decided against it. The cape itself was large for her, which made sense, considering it was for someone as tall as her Master. Maybe she'd just wear it to sleep, like a nice cozy blanket.

"I like it," she said definitively, playing with the collar, then wrapping the whole cape around her body. Oh, yes. Very cozy.

"Then promise me you won't ruin it more than it already is, Police Girl," he joked, his mischievous smirk back on his face.

"Of course, my Master. But that's _my_ second promise to _you_. Now we're even." She hopped onto his lap, snatching the book from his hands.

He laughed, petting her head. "Of course, little Seras."

* * *

"How the hell did you miss almost every single shot?"

"Well, they're not exactly easy targets to hit!"

"Dude, stop missing so much. You're wasting precious ammo."

"It's not my fault Integra put the stupid limit on it! Why the hell is that even a thing?"

"Probably doesn't want to waste money on all of it. Rich people put their money elsewhere, like taking their pets on vacation."

"You know, you joke, but that's kinda what she did."

"Will you all quit complaining already? Christ, you sound like whiny school girls." Pip grunted, aiming his gun at the targets nailed unreasonably far into the forest by the Hellsing manor.

Sure, there were closer ones, but he was trying to get the targets clearly made for the vampires.

"Think of it as a challenge," he said before firing a few bullets. "Once we actually start fighting some of these Nazi assholes, there won't be an infinite supply of ammunition behind us. Every shot has to count, both for our lives and our odds of winning." He sighed when none of his shots landed at all on the target he was aiming for, though some hit the closer ones.

"Yeah, sure. That's inspirational and all, but I can't get any better if I know each failed shot means less to work with."

"If you're really so curious, you can ask the reason why, you know."

The mercenaries flinched away from the sudden appearance of the Police Girl, who was halfway out of the wall, resting against one of the ammunition crates.

"Sorry," she spoke through giggles. "I couldn't help listening in. But like I said, if you're looking for someone to blame for the ammunition limit, that's me."

A lot of them were clearly still confused, some also afraid on top of that.

"What exactly did you do?" one of the men asked, the one she'd heard complaining before.

She disappeared back into the wall, then hopped out entirely, standing cheerfully before the mercenaries.

"I may have gone a tad overboard practicing while bored. Sir Integra also limits the number of times I can come train. I think it's down to once a week now, if I remember correctly." She tapped her chin in mock thought, then shrugged.

"Is it true you vampires can hit the faraway targets? Some of us have been having trouble," another one of the mercenaries asked, eyeing the whining first mercenary.

She walked over to the nervous man, holding her hand out for his gun. Once he gave it to her, she took quick aim, then fired three times.

All three had hit the furthest marker, the one the Captain had failed to even touch. The bullets might have even seared through the target.

"Jesus," she heard a third mercenary whimper.

"I wouldn't want to waste your limited supply," she said as she handed back the gun.

Pip was the only one not entirely surprised. He'd seen the Hellsing vampires in action already. He was sure none of his men would ever live to see the full extent of their power.

"What are you doing here, cher?" he asked.

Seras giggled again, as if happy that he'd seen past her simple intentions. "I was bored and decided I might as well find entertainment somewhere. Besides, I have to keep watch over this manor and you all. I am in charge after all." She spoke proudly, straightening into a more professional pose once she was done.

A few of the men chuckled at her rather exaggerated behavior.

"You're in charge?"

"You've gotta be kidding me."

"We're the ones with actual war experience and Sir Integra leaves you to lead us? Why didn't you tell us, Captain?"

These complaints felt so familiar. It was so nostalgic listening to them, like hearing those of the old, fallen soldiers. Though solemn the thought, she relished the returning memory. Bittersweet, she could call it.

"I don't think you idiots realize what we'll be facing soon. These aren't the usual terrorists or radical religious psychos. These are vampires. Insane, bloodsucking Nazis that will end up killing you without any hesitation. The only one here who could survive any attack from them is Miss Victoria, so unless anyone here wants to be bloodwine for dinner, I'd suggest you quit whining and listen to her."

She could see the nervous soldier sweating, along with a few others. She watched one lose all the color in his face.

Pip put an arm around her shoulders. "I wouldn't say so if I hadn't seen her in action myself. Trust me. She can take a bullet and dish a dozen right back at them, right cher?" He looked to her, his confident smile so trusting, innocent, yet knowing and mature.

She nodded.

"Wait," the nervous soldier said, "so it's true that you vampires can survive a bunch of bullets, right?"

"If they're not blessed, then yes." Suddenly that gave her an idea. "I know, how about you all try to shoot me?"

She was met with plenty of dubious expressions, others clearly wondering why.

"Ma cher, don't you think that's a bit extreme?" he whispered to her.

"You don't think it's better to practice on an actual vampire, rather than some unmoving targets a bit far away?" she retorted, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Huh... Touché."

She giggled and shrugged his arm off, moving in front of the targets. "Alright then. With whatever practice bullets you have left, try to shoot me a couple of times. Shouldn't be that hard, right? I'll even stay closer to you than the targets, though I'll be moving around as much as I'd like. Can't make it too easy."

"And what if we actually hit you?" one of the other mercenaries questioned.

"Then congrats. You'll have better odds of surviving when other vampires come running at the gate," she replied rather snarkily.

Many laughed, while a few were slightly off-put by her tone.

"Oh, come on," said the same mercenary, "Not even a reward for the guy that does it? Like a congratulation kiss or a date for the winner?"

"Maybe a shoe up your ass for sounding so desperate?" another of the men joked. The laughter quickly returned.

The outed soldier grunted in embarrassment, but remained quiet otherwise.

Once the cheerful moment died down, it was clear the men were eager to take on Seras' challenge.

Soon, she found herself weaving through a hail of bullets with an ease none of them had known possible.

She rested in pockets of freedom whenever a soldier or two needed to reload, but for the most part, she was skipping along the grass and somersaulting the other direction. It was exciting, and she even made a game for herself in figuring out who had fired each of the bullets. She found that certain ammunition types were specific to what gun a certain soldier favored using.

Captain Bernadotte seemed to fancy himself a sniper rifle at the moment, even though she'd seen him use an entirely different gun before.

He rarely moved or fired at her, so whenever she saw one of his bullets fly by, she watched his one good eye twitch. What was he doing exactly? She couldn't tell, but he seemed to be waiting for her to be in his sights before shooting or at least close enough.

Well, that certainly wouldn't work.

With a little more effort, she slipped further away from his crosshair and lead the hail of bullets away from his circle of sight. It took him a second to notice, but by then, she had hopped back and smirked as she darted away before he could react.

One by one, soldiers depleted their limited ammo, declaring defeat by that point. The barrage became a few bursts, then three or four wild fires.

Pip had no choice but to quit once his last sniper bullet missed, much to his dismay. Near the end, he'd caught up to her tricks, but by then she'd practically been curious to see if any of them could hit her if she didn't try as hard.

That had been her undoing, however, as one of the soldiers was actually able to do so. A solid headshot.

The mercenaries suddenly rushed to her unmoving body. She'd been hit right above her left eye and was seriously bleeding. They fought back the urge to help her long enough to see the blood around the wound spin into a strange, red vortex, then heal into unharmed skin and disappear beneath it.

Seras opened her eyes and groaned as she sat up.

"You alright, cher?" Pip asked as he knelt down next to her.

"As fine as getting shot feels," she joked before coughing into her hand. She felt something land in her hand and opened it to reveal a simple pistol bullet. She recognized it as the nervous mercenary's.

He was one of the ones actually hesitant to hurt her, so it seemed he'd used a gun he wasn't entirely good with. His erratic aiming clearly worked, much to her surprise.

"Huh. Well then," she spoke through her amazement, looking up at the confused and scared human. "Congrats."

"Th-That couldn't have been me, Seras. Honest."

"You're the only one here that used a damn pistol," another man reminded him.

"Ey, good for you, Theo. You might have something in you for vampire hunting yet."

"It was just a lucky shot. I'm so sorry, Seras," he apologized, backing away from her.

"It's no worry, Theo, really. I was the one that issued the challenge. I was sort of expecting it. Besides, I'm fine. Like I said, it's not holy ammunition, so it didn't hurt me much," she assured as she stood. She rubbed the place where the bullet hole once was and cringed. "Can't say it didn't sting at the pride though."

Gosh, that was pretty careless, not noticing the bullet in time. If her Master had been around, he would have teased her for being oblivious and slow.

Really, she figured she was just bored. It was the waiting game until Millennium reared its ugly head this way.

The soldiers had dispersed now that practice was forced to end.

Seras was about to head back down to the basement when someone caught her wrist and she flinched, swatting it away suddenly.

"Geez, cher, it's just me. I was calling your name but you weren't listening," Pip said, stepping back in fear. A few of his friends were behind him, similarly nervous. Theo especially.

"Sorry, I was... thinking," she apologized, showing a sheepish, toothy smile.

"You do that often?" one of the others joked, a few snickers following.

She furrowed her brow in frustration, only to relax when the memory of her Master's chuckle came to mind. He'd said something similar, hadn't he? Perhaps she _was_ thinking too much.

The voices were getting louder the closer the threat of battle seemed to come.

"We were sort of wondering..." Theo began.

" _Theo_ was wondering," Pip corrected, nudging the younger lad.

He whined and rubbed his arm before looking back to Seras. "Why did Alucard turn you? If you don't mind saying, of course."

She looked from him to Pip to the rest of the faces trying to hide their similar curiosity. "Well, I didn't have much of a choice if that's what you want to know," she answered.

"He forced you?" Theo guessed, wide-eyed.

"No, no. It wasn't like that. A vampire priest had me captive, you see, and my Master insisted that the only way to kill him was to shoot through me, since the bastard was using me as a shield. In the end, it was either I become a vampire or die there." She pursed her lips, looking away and suddenly adding, "I didn't want to die," without much thought.

"And Alucard couldn't do anything else? Doesn't he have all those crazy powers?" Pip was clearly a little skeptical.

She shrugged. "You make it seem like it bothers me. I mean, yes, I've thought about what he could've done instead, but he wasn't allowed to at the time. The restrictions on his powers didn't deem it necessary for him to do anything as over-the-top as he does now." She flicked her gaze back to them, smiling again. "Besides, in the end, it was still my choice to be a vampire, even if it was drastic circumstance."

"And you're fine with..." Theo hesitated, "With being like him?"

It didn't take a genius to understand what he meant.

A monster. A bloodsucker. Demon from the pits of hell. She could choose from dozens of names.

"A vampire? Sure. Sadistic? That, I can't really say. Master tells me that one day I'll enjoy killing for sport more than because I have to. Don't blame me for not sounding enthusiastic about that." Not really thinking, she ran her tongue along her fangs, her teeth shimmering with an unusual hunger.

The voices had become screaming, howling. She bit her bottom lip, trying to silence the groaning, like metal bending and squeaking under pressure.

"B-Boss! Look!" one of the soldiers called, pointing to the evening sky.

Up above, foreboding and looming, an airship floated.

Seras jerked to attention, realizing it was pointed their way.

"They're here," she whispered, a strange excitement boiling in her blood. She hadn't intended to say that. She wasn't even sure if it was her voice or one of the many eager to play.

"Get inside," Pip yelled to the Geese, all of them scrambling at the order.

She watched the dirigible slowly grow the closer it came to the manor. The horizon, despite the long setting sun, glowed a gentle, fireside orange. London was beginning to burn.

"Seras?" Theo tugged at her arm, only to be met with a dangerous, fiery gaze that startled him. He scrambled back, fallen to the ground in fright.

"Relax, Theo," she spoke, quickly helping him to his feet. "Let's get inside like the Captain said, alright?" At his nod, she disappeared into the wall.

It was time for war.


	6. 1000 Eyes Watching

If her heart still worked... Well, that would mean she was still alive, not a vampire practically jumping for joy at the thought of summoning bloodshed once more. Nevertheless, if it worked, it would be racing with a mix of fear and thrill. She wasn't sure what Millennium had in mind for her and the Wild Geese, but they weren't holding back, it seemed. Then again, neither would she.

 _Someone is eager for the kill_ , came that familiar baritone, this time in her mind.

 _Master? Is that you?_ Seras replied, unsure if it was actually him or just some warped memory.

 _Yes_ , he purred into her ears.

She shivered, the ghost of a hand gliding along her arm.

 _You're supposed to be taking care of the carrier_ , she reminded him as she strapped her favored rifle to her back. She considered the Harkonnen in the corner of her room, tempted to bring it with her for the battle.

 _I already have, Police Girl. Now it's your turn,_ he teased, _I simply wish to see your fun. Do try to make it entertaining for me, won't you?_

She pouted, unamused by his tone. Once she felt his presence fade into the background, she disappeared into the walls, leaving the cannon behind.

There were better weapons in the armory if she needed them anyway.

* * *

Her grip on her scythe tightened as that deranged feline appeared in front of her.

Zorin's men were antsy. Even she couldn't contain her desire to jump in and go for the kill. The mansion in the distance was a grand feast on a silver platter. The order. Was it finally time for the slaughter?

He cackled, imagining her reaction as fear rather than the obvious anticipation. Schrodinger turned from his view of the building below and finally addressed her with a confident smirk. His cat ears twitched.

"You may begin, the Major commands. He also sends his regards, to who he didn't specify." He shrugged. "Probably to Fräulein Victoria. Perhaps you should tell you before you kill her?"

Baring her teeth in annoyance, Zorin's body tensed. So the mad bastard didn't even bother to tell her face to face? Didn't care who won? Had he no confidence in her abilities? The fool. She had powers no other vampire could measure up to. The Hellsing manor would be rubble under her boots before dawn.

"The little bitch deserves none of my pity. He can tell her in Hell," she snarled in response, stamping the end of her weapon against the floor. A few vampire soldiers behind her saluted before hurrying off to the others down below.

"Your attitude leaves me tempted to stay and watch your battle. However, the Major awaits Alucard's return and I must be prepared for it. Such a shame. Also, try not to die so easy like the hunter did, yes? The Major would be very disappointed to see Seras out there without so much as a scratch." He rocked on his feet, his smile turning dark and mischievous right as he disappeared.

Zorin scoffed, "She won't be able to walk out there, once I'm through with her."

* * *

Seras finally understood why her Master was so fond of staring at the night sky. There was something so genuinely lovely about it.

A full moon looming over her in the distance. The stars scattered about reminded her of faces in an audience, when the spotlight wouldn't allow for one to clearly make out the expressions. One was only aware that they were all watching, waiting. It felt like a full crowd tonight.

A full crowd of demons from hell, forcing her to dance for them lest she be tossed into the wicked, red flames licking the horizon of her stage.

"Shut up," she hissed, putting a hand on her head.

"What was that, ma chère?" she heard through the headset. She hissed, her hands gripping her rifle a little closer.

"Nothing, Mister Bernadotte."

The blimp tempted her spotlight, eclipsing it and daring to muck up her next performance. She wanted to destroy it, tear it to pieces, and kill everyone inside. Perhaps then she'd get a standing ovation from her Master if she did so.

Her body reacted before she did, shooting a body falling out from the blimp.

"What the hell was that?" Theo's voice came through this time, dumbfounded.

"They're going straight for the doors. Not even bothering to shoot our way even once. Pathetic," Pip grumbled. He fiddled with a cigarette, waiting before taking pleasure in the stick's effects.

Theo slumped into his seat, gulping. "Sir, we're facing off Nazi vampires. Shouldn't that be enough of a concern? Why would you want them to fire at us?"

"Kid, you really should get on the front lines more often. It's better to weaken the enemy from a distance before jumping in for the kill, whenever you can. At least, that's what we're about around here." Deciding the Police Girl was fine with handling things, he passed the radio speaker to Theo and relaxed, kicking his boots up onto the monitoring station's table.

The younger mercenary groaned, watching the screens for the enemy's next move. His leg bounced slowly, not entirely in a rhythm, but in anticipation of the attack.

" _They're so close._ "

The sentence was followed by multiple shots, more corpses falling from the airship like limp dolls.

"Miss Victoria?" Theo called through the radio, his words filled with fear.

" _So hungry. So fresh. Out there in the fires of hell._ "

The voice sounded feminine, like a whisper, but wasn't Seras' voice.

Pip was just about to light his cigarette, but placed his lighter to the side and let his boots thump to the floor as he straightened in his seat. He snatched the speaker back.

"Cher, can you repeat what you said? We couldn't... understand it through the... static?" He wasn't sure what to call that voice and the way it spoke. It certainly wasn't normal. Then again, he _was_ talking to a vampire.

More bullet fire, more bodies, followed by a nervous whine.

"Seras?"

"What?"

"Is there someone with you?"

There was a pause, with some shuffling.

" _They're coming out to play. How adorable. You can't play in a slaughterhouse, children. Don't you know it's dangerous?_ "

"Oh God," Seras murmured. Her voice sounded distant, as if she'd removed her headset. "You... Captain?"

"Hm?"

Theo gulped next to him, and Pip was surprised to admit that he was also just as confused and terrified all of a sudden.

"She's... back. And different now." As vague as the words were, Pip knew it was Seras and not that anomaly.

He grit his teeth, hearing the nervous giggles and more movement.

" _Their deaths will be so sweet. Blood sounds so delightful when you haven't eaten fresh in so long, doesn't it? Feels like ages._ "

"God, no. Shut up!" Seras whimpered, her voice cracking.

"Captain, what is she going on about?" Theo asked.

Pip slammed his hand on the desk, the conclusion finally coming to him. He sat up and looked to the monitors, hesitation lasting half a second before he shouted into the microphone, "Fall back, cher! We can handle them!"

"But they'll-"

"Do it, Seras! Trust me!"

She dropped the headset, her now free hand holding her head to quiet the wild voices in her mind.

The madness was growing stronger. This vicious, new voice was tempting her with insanity. The shadows inside her were like tiny flickering flames, creeping out and dancing along her exposed skin. They weren't listening to her anymore.

Holding her rifle tighter to her side, she fell through the roof, dropping to the first floor of the mansion. There, she slumped against one of the walls, holding back the desire to consume the fresh blood beneath her on the ground floor.

The Wild Geese were starting to sound like the meal she'd been told they would be. Cooked Geese, though raw sounded much better to her primal instincts.

She struggled to push away the temptation, despite how tantalizing her thoughts made it out to be.

Her fangs dug into her thumb, tasting her own blood on the tip of her tongue.

This was impossible!

" _Go on! Feed! Kill them all._ _Leave nothing but bloody stains and empty corpses for the maggots to eat._ "

She almost twisted the hand extended her way right out of its socket. The scent of human blood was right under her nose, her body wracking with craving.

"Whoa! Cher, relax!" the Captain said, definitely taking a few steps back. He wasn't losing an arm trying to keep the vampire sane.

"Captain," Theo spoke, "maybe we shouldn't-"

"Oh, Mister Bernadotte," Seras interrupted, scrambling to her feet and pressing her side against the wall. "She won't stop! She won't shut up! She's gone mad!"

"Who, Seras? Who?"

"The voice! The one that tried to stay human. She won't shut up and die already!"

Pip already knew she'd say that, but he'd hoped it wasn't the case.

"Good lord..." he heard Theo mutter to himself.

"Alright, Seras. Do you think you can calm her down before my men run out of ammunition?" he tried, taking just one step closer.

Her gaze immediately shot to the window in front of her, once an explosion rang out. The two mercenaries looked out as well.

"L-Land mines?" she sputtered, walking closer to get a better view, the madness distracted by the splatter of vampire blood and body parts across the yard.

"That's the signal." Pip turned to the rookie poking his head out from the corner of the window. "Theo, go tell the others to start shooting some grenades up these bastard's asses. We can't let them through the yard right now." He subtly motioned to the unaware vampire next to him.

"R-Right! Yes, sir!" the boy replied with a nod before running off down the hall.

" _No! You're letting it get away!_ "

Seras' hungry eyes barely missed Theo's retreating form, then looked to the remaining mercenary. "Why do you have him on your team? He's not exactly what I'd call a merciless soldier for hire."

"Eh. He means well." Pip shrugged, glad to see a small smile form on the vampire's face. "Reminds me of myself when I was a kid. He shoots and kills for money, but isn't used to the guilt yet. He's pretty good with a sniper when he's not thinking too much, unlike myself. Came to us one day and said he needed money, then we decided to keep him around a little longer."

"Gracious. Normally that kind of soldier dies quick."

He flinched at how casually she'd said that, not much out of shame but fear. "Well-"

"I mean, just look at me," she continued with another nervous chuckle.

" _You're so much more than what he thinks you are._ "

Pip noticed now the faint hazy aura surrounding her, like a shadow hovering over her skin. Her eyes were a perfect crimson color, somehow glowing within the darkness. Her body was tense, and he was sure if she held his arm, she'd break through the bone without much effort.

She was a dangerous predator, and it was only their mutual respect in each other that kept him alive. At least, that's what he liked to believe. He wasn't sure if it was the case at all.

" _Don't let them live. All of them, even her. She must die. Leave her to me. I'll kill her. She'll be begging me for death by the time I'm done._ "

Tempted by the voice, he asked, "Who is that, really, Seras?"

Her eyes widened as she looked to him again. For a second, she wasn't sure what he meant. She'd already said it was that voice that had once faded into obscurity. Wasn't it? Yes, it was. It didn't sound exactly like her, but things had changed since then. Since she first tasted blood, the voice was quieter. The more she gave in to the hunger, the less it spoke, or rather, the less she heard it speak.

With dozens of others inside her, she wasn't entirely sure.

"I don't... know," was her only answer, her body suddenly relaxing.

Her gaze returned to the view of the aircraft, Nazi soldiers dropping from it without hesitation. Now that she wasn't shooting them down, they were racing towards the entrance of the manor, trying to evade the hail of explosives and blessed bullets.

One of the vampires that fell didn't look like the rest. With her enhanced vision, Seras could tell that the figure was a tall woman with tattoos covering half of her exposed skin. She held a scythe of all things.

Right as the odd vampire landed, she seemed to notice Seras at the window and grinned.

" _There you are._ "

Seras froze, realization striking her.

Pip seemed to notice her reaction, but nothing more. "What is it, Seras?" He leaned closer and followed her gaze, but couldn't quite see what the vampire could.

"I'm going out there," she declared, stepping away from the window.

"What? Are you crazy? There's still a bunch of those Nazi fucks waiting for an opening and you're just jumping into the middle of them?" Pip admonished her.

"You don't know what's out there, but I do. She's out there. Waiting for me."

"Good god, woman! Do you hear yourself? Theo was right. You're insane." He had hoped she would've calmed down from this crazy talk if she thought things through rationally, but clearly he was wrong.

"Yes, yes," she replied quickly, "Irrational, I know! But I also know what I'm doing, Captain. Can you trust me?" Seras straightened, holding herself and her weapon like a confident soldier, or the facade of one, to him.

He watched her unwavering stare, wanting to deny her, but knowing better. His men wouldn't hold forever, that was true. But was it wise to send their leader out there in a wild charge with nothing but her rifle and wit?

"I can do this, Pip."

After a short silence, he said, "Then go."

She smiled and turned to run.

"Seras Victoria, if you don't come back, I will personally hunt you down in Hell and never let you go."

She looked over her shoulder, a little surprised to hear that from the human. Then her smile brightened and she giggled. "Don't worry. I already promised I'd return."

With that, she hurried off, slipping through the floor and down past the front door.

She heard a few of the mercenaries behind her gasp through the rapid fire and explosions. That hesitation couldn't last. She motioned for them to keep going, giving a few of the nearby ones a knowing glance.

"Try not to hit her, guys. Especially you, kid." Theo's scoff followed a few chuckles. Things could thankfully still be high-spirited, even in such frightfully bleak times. She was grateful for that.

The firing quickly resumed and Seras darted into the fray, dodging each and every bullet with ease. The mad little voice inside her flared with excitement once more and this time, she embraced it, deciding to follow her Master's advice.

Once the first Nazi vampire landed in her line of sight, she sprang at him, ripping his head clean off and drinking up the blood spurting from his neck.

A few others dared to shoot at her from afar, but she played with them much like she did the Wild Geese, avoiding each shot. Without a second thought, she bounded up to them like a wild animal and broke through one of them, his chest specifically.

These idiots were almost as bad as the ghouls that tried destroying the manor previously. At least they were smart enough to attempt dodging her attacks. She slashed at another, tearing off his arm, then again, slicing a third across the waist. The latter of the two collapsed, unable to hold himself up, while the former fell back in a sniveling heap.

There was one left nearby, trembling as he held his gun up.

"Die and go to hell, bitch!" he cried out, only to be silenced by a sharp squelch. He slumped to the ground, his body riding a thick line of blood that had shot out like a dagger at her command.

The blood followed her as she continued towards her goal.

Now closer to the blimp, she could see the moon once more, just as perfect as she remembered. The familiarity brought with it new understanding. The stars and the darkness surrounding them seemed to morph from hidden faces to hundreds of eyes, thousands of them, really.

All watching, waiting.

Comforting and familiar.

Part of her powers sensed around for her Master, curious to know if he was still lurking around. Surely he found her performance satisfying, right?

"Seras Victoria."

She barely even flinched at the guns pointed at her, a line of enemy soldiers standing between her and the strange woman, the one with the tattoos, who dared to speak her name.

"Who are you?" she asked, calm despite the circumstances. She was genuinely intrigued by this unique creature.

Definitely a vampire. Beyond her keen senses telling her of power unimaginable, Seras could see fangs in that confident grin. Her threatening, hungry gaze, eager for bloodshed.

The woman chuckled, wielding her scythe proudly at her side. She stepped closer and presented herself confidently. "I am Lieutenant Zorin Blitz, if that's what you plan on focusing on before your death. Fine by me." She snapped her fingers, the men pulling the triggers on their guns immediately.

Seras' body fell back into the large pool of blood that had followed her.

"That's it?" Zorin sneered. "She didn't even put up a fight. Her men fought better than her. I didn't even touch her." She cackled, holding onto her scythe to keep herself steady. What a sight. It was almost too easy.

She froze, looking back at the body.

Yes, that was... Far too easy. Impossibly so.

"Shoot her again!" she commanded her soldiers.

None of them moved, spoke a word, or even looked at her.

A purr of excitement echoed in her ears. Zorin stumbled back as the Nazi vampires suddenly turned and pointed their guns at her instead.

"Tricky bastard. Not entirely wrong, I suppose, but not right either." Seras sighed as she stood again, half her face still partially shadows and blood. She clicked her teeth together as her jaw reaffixed itself. Her eyes gleamed once they were both back in their sockets. "Oh well. I guess he didn't want me getting ahead of myself."

"H-How?" Zorin questioned, baring her fangs.

"Hm? Don't you have some master vampire to teach you these things? I certainly do at least. I stole this neat little trick from him." Seras pointed to the large holes in her head healing as she spoke. "I'm certain he won't mind if I use it. It's quite satisfying to see the look on your face, that's for sure." She giggled and snapped her fingers.

The Lieutenant jumped back, only to notice right away that none of the somehow possessed soldiers fired at her. Instead, they fell to pieces, limbs falling into a scattered pile and blood pooling at the girl's feet.

Seras laughed.

Finally having enough of the girl's attitude, Zorin swung her scythe, roaring with anger.

Seras ducked, picking one of the guns off the ground and shooting the Nazi woman in the leg before scurrying away from a wild grab at her neck.

Zorin used her scythe as a crutch as her bullet wounds healed, but barely missed a beat when Seras shot at her again, dodging to the left and slashing down this time.

Seras jerked back, grinning when the blade dug into the pool of blood.

"Oh no you don't!"

Zorin used the leverage to quickly pounce on the Police Girl, forcing away the gun and choking her.

Seras hissed and scratched at the arm at her neck, before her eyes widened and she grinned before disappearing into the ground.

"What?" Zorin darted her gaze around the bloody little arena they'd created. She stood and grabbed her scythe, holding it tighter.

What kind of powers were these? When the Major and the Doctor had mentioned abilities she and rest of the elite vampires wouldn't be able to have thanks to the experiments, she was sure they weren't anything like her own power.

Wait a minute! That's right!

She slammed her hand into the ground, the symbols tattooed into her body glowing as she chanted her spell. Her whole body soon glowed a mix of purple and green. The runes on her arm slipped off her skin and onto her shadow, a mad grin on her face as she called out, "Try fighting this, bitch!"

Seras reappeared from a mass of blood a few meters away, confused as to what the woman meant. It was only when the purple shadows formed a familiar silhouette did she begin to cower.

The form took one step, then another, then darted at her, pulling a gun out of his coat.

No. No, no, no, no. No!

"M-Master!" she cried, springing out of the way.

"Kill her, Alucard!" a familiar voice commanded, Seras whimpering as fear suddenly clung to her mind.

No! Integra had trusted Seras to take care of the manor! Why would she order her Master to attack her?

What did she even do wrong?

Well, she could think of a few things.

"As you wish, my Master," Alucard spoke as he took his other gun, the Jackal, out of his coat as well. He aimed them both at her and fired twice.

The resounding explosion at her feet was so startling, she barely had time to avoid it, and it was _absolutely painful_. The blessed bullets seared into the flesh of her thighs and she screamed as she was tossed up into the air, falling face-first onto the ground and writhing in agony.

A rough hand grabbed her hair and she stared down the barrel of the Casull. She squirmed and whined, looking at her Master's conflicted expression and begging him to spare her. Once her legs began to heal, much slower than she liked to admit, she kicked at the ground to find her footing, her hands moving to her rifle.

She barely felt it on her fingertips when a bullet shot through her shoulder, the torn flesh itself screeching. Those damn bullets _hurt_ and she couldn't heal fast enough to knock his gun away or grab her own.

"Let me go!" she yelled through the pain. With her good hand, she scratched at his arm, unable to do much else as agony and fear coursed through every part of her body.

She'd die here, on Integra's sudden order to kill her, by her Master's hand.

Her gaze flickered to him as he growled and pressed his gun against her head.

"M-Master?" she whispered, unsure.

After all he promised to her, and she in return, this was how it would end? No! This couldn't be right! Why would any of this happen while she–

It was then she remembered what she'd been previously doing.

Fighting through the pain, she wrenched the gun out of the fake's hand, snapping through bone. Despite pulling the trigger multiple times, the gun didn't even make a shooting sound, much less fired anything.

She tore off the other arm, charging her head into the illusion's stomach until he was flung away.

Her gaze shifted from the beaten fraud to the spellcaster, growling like a savage beast. Without hesitation, she charged at Zorin, breaking the woman's concentration and completely shattering the illusion.

Fangs dug into the tattooed arm, threatening to rip it off. Zorin snarled and punched at the girl's head, but only served to beat her teeth deeper in.

Seras pulled back, her hand working to twist the other arm off as well. Once the Nazi started kicking, she bounced back and pounced in from behind, easily maneuvering around the startled vampire.

She bit into Zorin's neck, tugging at the woman's short hair just enough to make room.

"Get the fuck off me, you vampire whore!" she cried out as she tried to get a hold on the psychotic fledgling. It was no use. She was starting to feel the energy leave her.

Seras let go and hissed, kicking Zorin to the ground. She reached behind her back for her rifle, only to realize it wasn't there. She saw it near where she'd fought the fake Alucard, further away than she liked. Searching for the nearest weapon, she saw Zorin's scythe, discarded and forgotten.

Picking it up, she eyed the blade, deciding to go with her gut instinct and bringing it down.

With a slick slicing sound, the tip pushed through the small of Zorin's back, almost pushing out of her chest. She gasped and trembled, immediate shock pushing past all other thoughts.

Thrill and curiosity playing in her expression, Seras tugged the scythe out and tried again, this time slicing sideways, through a leg.

Zorin screamed out in pain, suddenly aware that she could attempt escape and doing so.

" _That's it?_ "

She yelped as a shoe slammed right onto her back, pressing her to the ground.

" _You didn't even put up much of a fight. Your men fought better than you._ "

That mocking tone, even trying to mimic her accent, would have been annoying to her, if she wasn't being crushed like a bug under a boot. Her voice practically echoed through her skull.

"This was almost too easy," Seras said, spinning the scythe in her hand. She looked down at the whimpering creature, then sighed. "I was honestly hoping for more of a challenge, not underhanded tricks pretending to be one."

She knelt down, her full weight further digging into Zorin's spine. "Oh well. I suppose I'm getting ahead of myself. Maybe now you can show me what your sire taught you, hm? Some hidden talents or unique perks I should be aware of?" When all she got were screams and grunts, she rolled her eyes. "I'll find out for myself then."

She snapped her fingers and the blood from the entire battle swarmed Zorin's body like thousands of hungry rats, consuming her until she was nothing more than a memory, trapped like all the others.

Slowly, the blood collected itself into Seras' shadow, eager to please.

Once it was all gone, she dropped to the ground, sitting and leaning her weight on the scythe still in her hands.

Sighing, she jerked as all the pain she'd previously ignored came flooding back. Her shot shoulder burned. Her legs were still reforming skin and bone in large spots with raw burn patches. She could feel the dull ache in her muscles from stress. Her head pulsed with the strain of madness pushing against her skull.

Her gaze shifted to the aircraft moving past her, the soldiers clearly deciding to avoid her and go straight in.

" _Time to get back to work_."

She stifled a whine, wishing that she didn't have to deal with this anymore. This war, the death, the blood, and especially the insanity of being a vampire.

" _Time to fulfill your mission_."

Seras held her head in her hand, gently, not strained. Blood tears began to fall down her cheeks and it took some effort not to scream. Her body shook with each sob.

" _Time to help your men_."

She was tired. So very, unreasonably tired.

" _Time to kill._ "


	7. Endure

Explosions, gunfire, groaning, hissing, and screaming were the main sounds in the symphony of madness. London was burning. Its people were either bloody, mangled corpses on the streets or rotten ghouls lurching about aimlessly in search of a warm, living meal. Survivors of the chaos were the victors of this barbaric attack, the Nazi vampire army of Millennium. If she didn't already feel so defeated, Seras would race through the entire city and kill every last one of them with just her fangs. Hands tied behind her back, blindfolded even. She was disgusted with the smell of dead bodies, smoke, and blood coming from the scene before her.

Behind her was Hellsing manor, about to be invaded by a separate but similarly eager wave of Nazi vampires, if she didn't get off her ass to do something.

A finger pressed into the slowly healing bullet wound on her shoulder, cringing when her nerves protested her curious action.

She understood why vampires hated blessed weapons and ammunition much more than she wanted to. It hurt a hundred times more than being shredded by a hail of regular bullets to her face and she'd long since healed of _those_ wounds.

With the help of the scythe she'd snatched from Zorin, she stumbled to stand, growling at her protesting, still-healing legs.

She'd collected so much blood and yet she still struggled with fixing herself from an explosion at her feet. She could barely imagine what being decapitated with a holy blade felt like. Could she even survive such a scenario?

That was a question for later, for her Master to answer, once he returned.

Right now, she needed to shape up and get her head back in the game.

Right. Yes! Destroying an entire Millennium airship. Not a problem. Not something she trained for, but causing trouble was something that came to her quite easily. Surely breaking a few engines and blowing up major parts of the aircraft would be simple enough.

Whoever heard of something being easier said than done? Not her.

Why was she stalling so much? Seras eyed the enemy ship with this new revelation in mind. Was it because she was afraid? Screw that; she'd faced off against the worst, that she was completely positive of. No one on board would match her strength even if she didn't try as hard.

And yet, she could technically call it fear. Fear of no satisfaction, if that was a thing. Fear of boredom. Fear of not enjoying the kill as much as she wanted. Killing Zorin had been the highlight so far in this insanity. That and quieting that taunting voice once more, or at least drowning it in a hundred others.

Seras was afraid of becoming like her Master, just like he'd said she would. All of them did; him, Integra, maybe Walter, the old soldiers, and the new. Her Master had been waiting with bated breath for this war to start, just to find entertainment in the slaughter that a million search and destroy missions couldn't quite fulfill.

She had become just as eager, and now that her subconscious expectations hadn't been met, she was bored. Absolutely bored.

 _Don't you have something you should be doing?_

Seras was damn near close to cursing, annoyed that she'd been caught thinking too much. Again. That's... What? Twice today alone?

 _Police Girl, I'm beginning to think you're in need of another lesson._

 _Master, I don't have time–_

 _No, you clearly do, since you seem to be fine standing around, disobeying my Master's orders._ His teasing tone both irked and pleased her. Anything to break her out of the screaming solitude that was her mind was fine with her.

"Fine," she grumbled as she attempted to take a few easy steps toward the mansion.

 _How do you intend to intercept the airship?_ he asked, still mocking her. God, was he bored too? At least for him, it made sense; being stuck on a ship in the middle of the Atlantic didn't exactly sound fun.

"Err... I'm assuming running at it is definitely out of the question?"

 _At the rate you're moving, you wouldn't even make it to the armory in time to try blowing it up._

Damn. Then what other options did she have? She couldn't exactly fly up there, could she?

 _Master, can vampires fly?_

 _In theory, it's possible. If you count bat familiars as part of vampires, then I suppose so. In reality, no. I have yet to meet a vampire that can. I'd be astounded if you found a way to do so._

She hummed, considering his words. Bat familiars, eh?

 _How many bats do you think–_

 _It wouldn't work. Trust me._

"Then how the hell do you even make a bat familiar, if you're trying to teach me something?" she barked, teeth trembling. Actually, her whole body felt shaky all of a sudden. Perhaps the fear of losing Pip and the Wild Geese was starting to take over finally. Thank goodness, if that was the case. She was afraid she'd become apathetic to those she cared for.

She didn't hear from him for quite a time. A second suddenly felt like a year, things were moving so slow.

"Sorry, Master," she mumbled knowingly, hearing his hum of acknowledgment.

 _At least you're aware of your mistakes. Most fledglings, not even those older than you, realize their stupidity._

 _So you're going to teach me about familiars?_ she thought back hopefully.

 _How would that help you in any way?_

 _I'm thinking I could use a couple to sabotage parts of the ship._ She kept her sights set on the engines, assuming he'd understand from there.

 _You don't even know how to make one and you're already intending to send multiple to do as you command._ She could hear his amusement. His laughter was probably scaring sharks away out there.

 _Well, I would have one already if you actually taught me how to do it instead of wasting time._

 _You're growing quite the attitude, Police Girl. It's charming. Don't overdo it._ She could feel the ghost of a sigh on her shoulder, startling her somewhat. _This wound on your shoulder. Stop healing it._

"What? Are you mad?" she questioned, but obeyed nevertheless.

 _Good. Now imagine the blood shaping into a bat instead of your muscles._ He decided to ignore her and focus on teaching her anyway.

"Like... Control the blood into the form of a bat?" she spoke with uncertainty, watching the blood soak into her uniform's sleeve.

 _No. I told you before. This isn't like controlling blood or leading the blood._ This _is molding it. Familiars require a different kind of concentration to create. You're bringing a separate but connected creature to life, not just commanding a puppet on strings._

His phrasing was reprimanding, but his tone was gentle, patient. She wasn't sure how he could be so calm in the face of dangerous circumstances, but then again, this was her mission on the line, not his.

"So would this be related to healing in some way?" She only connected the dots from what he'd previously stated.

 _On the spectrum, yes, it would. The forming of a familiar is probably one of the tougher abilities, especially if you're making an entirely new, unique body from scratch._

"Does that mean I could create a body I already know and not have to put much effort into giving it life?"

She noticed the blood on her sleeve begin to bubble up, much like the pile she'd amassed back in Rio. Surely this was progress? She was on a bit of a time crunch.

 _You'd be wasting souls away instead of actually using them. To maintain the original form, multiple souls have to be used. These aren't illusions, Police Girl. These are actual creatures that fight for you._

"Illusions?" she murmured, hearing a confused grunt from him. An idea suddenly came to mind. She smiled. "Master, hypothetically speaking, say you had a soul with a certain... magical power. How costly would it be to access such an ability?"

 _If it's a magical ability, the only cost would be from the ability itself, not any vampiric energy. You'd have the knowledge and power that soul once possessed if you drank enough of their blood._ He took a moment to think before adding, _What are you up to, Police Girl? You sound like you're onto something._

"That's because I am," she responded back with the same cheerful tone, focusing more intently on the bubbling blood.

It seemed to twitch like an erratic spider leg, then gained a more solid, round form before springing off her shoulder with a slick popping sound. She watched as it spasmed through the air, at one point almost falling to the ground. It circled around her head, finally behaving like a happy little blood bat.

 _Not as impressive as I was expecting, but still–_

"I'm not done yet." She held her hand out, letting the bat land on her palm.

Closing her eyes and gritting her teeth, she felt through the energy within her for the power she desired. She could barely touch it, feeling it right on ghostly fingertips. The cheeky soul was trying to avoid her. How cute. She reached further in, easily grasping the power, but now needed to put it into practice, just like the rest.

It seemed, since the soul was unwilling, she couldn't entirely do with the power what she liked. She was stuck with what she had, which she figured was enough for what she wanted to do.

The bat began to glow a dark purple, fluttering off her hand and around her head once more before falling in front of her as an entirely full person.

Seras opened her eyes and smiled, her familiar mirroring her expression.

 _Oh?_ Her Master's chuckle reverberated through her mind. _Looks like someone's moving ahead of the lessons._

"But it works, doesn't it, Master?" the second Seras replied.

 _Interestingly, yes. Were it not for the number of souls I can sense between you two, I wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Now, what is this little trick going to accomplish, Police Girl?_

"Well," the original Seras began, "one can take care of the mansion and make sure no enemies make their way inside while the other takes care of the airship and the rest of London."

"And another can go off to fetch Integra and Walter," the other Seras added suddenly, glaring when the original raised a brow. She remained firm, a silent understanding moving between them.

"Fine," the original said with a deep sigh. "But you're the one that's taking care of the airship and the mansion, if that's the case."

"Fair," the clone responded before looking to the dirigible and turning back into a bat.

Seras grinned at the howling laughter of her Master. Seems she'd accomplished something surprising beyond her magic trick.

 _You sound absolutely mad._

"I suppose talking to yourself is a tad mental," she commented as she watched the familiar fly off.

 _Arguing with yourself isn't just a_ tad _mental, little one._

She rolled her eyes and focused on creating another bat. She had a mission to take care of, after all.

* * *

A large booming explosion reverberated through the air and earth. Huge metal bars, beams, and sheets fell from the sky, busted engines crushing the ground like meteors.

Flames quickly died as the wind seemed to kick up around it. As more parts of the destroyed aircraft fell, the fire was beaten away before it could engulf the surrounding grass. The remains of the ship had become a scrapyard in front of the manor.

"I'd call it more of a graveyard," she murmured to no one in particular. Maybe it was the voices in her head. She couldn't be sure.

Blood from decapitated soldiers obeyed her silent command, coming to her in her time of need.

Despite being without a real leader anymore, those Nazi soldiers had put up quite the annoying fight. At the same time, all she had were a dozen or so souls inside her, instead of the usual full amount. This meal would heal her left arm right back up, it having been torn off in the whole mess by a few of the wilder vampires.

Content with her destruction, she strode back towards the manor, which was only a few steps away. The walkway to the front doors was a mess, but since it wasn't exactly part of the building itself, she considered this a job well done.

"Miss Victoria, you're okay!" Theo was the first to greet her in, his voice sounding rather weak and hoarse. She gave him a questioning look, which he chose to avoid as Pip came up to her.

"Kept my promise," she chimed, grinning at his soft chuckles.

"Of course you did, ma chère. I knew you wouldn't break your word." As he spoke, he side-eyed Theo, who huffed and shrunk away.

Her gaze darted between the two of them. "Am I missing something here?" she asked.

"Some of us–" he subtly motioned to the retreating Theo– "didn't think you'd survived, with the ship still coming our way and all. Since we couldn't contact you to make sure and things were quiet out there, they assumed the worse."

"And you didn't?"

"You're one of the strongest vampires I know, cher. I'd assume you would've gone off to clean up the rest of London if you didn't come out of that wreck," he answered, jokingly shrugging his shoulders.

"Your faith in me is quite flattering, Captain. Thank you for that."

Seras scanned the foyer, seeing weary but relaxed expressions all around. Now that she'd returned from killing the main threat, fear and worry were washed away from the soldiers' thoughts.

"So what's next?" Pip had her attention once again and at first, she had no clue what the question implied. Then she remembered. She was in charge.

"Err... Well, we can relax for now. As far as I can tell, there aren't any more of those freaks left nearby. Best to stay alert though, just in case some come along."

She hesitated to say more, on how she was taking care of things in London and with Integra, but decided against it. Perhaps it was better the Geese focused on keeping the manor safe and she worried about the rest on her own.

* * *

It was difficult to hold back the bile. Corpses strewn about the street and blood plastered on buildings like graffiti. A vile stench seemed to permeate the air even if you weren't in it, just by looking at the mess that was London.

Barbaric monsters, vampires could be. Integra knew this now more than ever. She knew Alucard had been this way more than a hundred years ago, long before Van Hellsing, back when he was still Vlad the Impaler. To think, centuries passed since that first vampire came to be and the species hadn't changed much.

Even her vampire, the chained dog he was, still craved the insanity of war.

Shadows passed by the car and screaming could be heard behind it. She didn't want to look back, but the reflection through the rearview mirror was all she needed.

More blood soaked the streets they passed through.

There was a heavy thumping sound right above them. Integra flinched when she heard it, and she could see Walter's body tense up as well.

Through the mirror, she could see a boot poking into view. There was someone on the roof.

"Sir, should I..." The butler didn't finish his question, since the rest was easily implied. He held a hand up knowingly, his other firmly glued to the steering wheel.

Integra glared up at where the body likely was, considering the option.

Suddenly, fingers appeared at the edge of the opposite window to hers. She almost didn't notice them until they became a full gloved hand that knocked twice on the glass.

Strange, polite, and feminine.

A familiar head of messy blonde hair and bright red eyes appeared at the window. Seras smiled and waved sheepishly, and the muffled words, "Sorry for scaring you, sir," were heard before she slipped through the roof and into the seat beside her.

"Miss Victoria, what on earth are you doing here?" the Hellsing exclaimed, obviously upset.

"I came on my Master's orders, sir. He told me to keep you safe, so I am." Seras grinned, then turned her head to the chaos outside, like a child marveling at amazing new sights.

Integra was about to interject with another point, when the commotion outside caught her attention.

A group of Nazi soldiers had taken to following the car, clearly intent on destroying it and the passengers inside. To Integra's surprise and without warning, all five of the men were killed by the time Walter rounded the corner. She barely had a chance to see the flash of blonde and red before it disappeared.

She eyed Seras' seemingly innocent act. Surely that wasn't...

"Is there something wrong, sir?" Seras asked with a playful tilt of the head.

"Seras, was that–"

The car suddenly screeched to a halt, almost hitting someone standing in the middle of the road. The sound of crushed metal was the first sign of danger. Another vehicle had been thrown at them.

The figure that had caught the offending object tossed it away and turned to the passengers inside.

"Keep going," the second Seras suggested, pointing to the road to the right before turning back to her latest objective.

"H-How?" Walter stammered, looking through the rearview mirror at the Seras still sitting inside the car.

"Just keep going, Walter," this Seras insisted.

"But–!"

"Walter, it's an order," Integra commanded, and with that, the car was speeding through the street Seras had chosen.

Seras giggled, having decided to observe the disappearing fight through the back window for as long as she could.

"Explain yourself, vampire," Integra snapped, immediately gaining the Police Girl's attention.

With a sigh, Seras slumped into the seat, though her smile remained. "I'm pretty sure I don't need to explain, do I? You already know. Or at least understand. You're smarter than most people give you credit for." Her words seemed to trail into silence, as if she were thinking about something as she watched her Master's master.

There was something in the way those crimson eyes looked that frightened Integra, much like Seras' snappy attitude had during their little spat. It wasn't rage or hate, unlike before, but madness. And yet, it wasn't entirely so. Seras clearly knew what she was doing; there was a focus in her expression, though on what, it was unclear; but knew nothing at all at the same time.

Unpredictable, she could perhaps call it, since she couldn't place the right word on it. Frighteningly unpredictable.

* * *

Soldiers stumbled through the streets, drunk off the blood of the innocent. They exuded the pure madness in their cores, chanting their victories, holding up their spoils as they laughed the night away.

It was almost too easy to kill them. They were distracted by their victory. She was unsure whether to make herself known before killing them or sneakily end each of them off.

 _What do you think, Master?_

There was a huff, though she couldn't tell if it was an annoyed or upset one. Wait, weren't those the same thing? Maybe? No? Oh well. Who cared?

 _Surely you don't need me to order you around, Police Girl._

 _No. But I'd like a second opinion, if you're willing to provide._

 _If that's the case, then leave them be. I'd at least like something to kill when I return._

Seras grinned, stifling her giggles as she climbed back up to the rooftops. He wasn't wrong. She _had_ been taking care of a lot of the vampires roaming about. Whenever she saw some, she made sure they weren't able to blink before ending them. A few here or there had stabbed through a leg or shot through the heart, but she didn't even flinch.

Such a fuss over an enemy that didn't even live up to the hype. How disappointing. The Geese could put up more of a fight than these cowards.

In order to satiate her desire, she'd stopped simply slicing through the soldiers with her scythe or shooting them. She started charging in, fangs at the ready, right for the jugular whenever she could. She wanted _something_ thrilling from this whole ordeal.

 _Speaking of that, how close are you to London, Master?_

 _Enough to enjoy the scent of slaughter. Why? Are you missing me, little one?_

 _I miss when the fighting was fun, sir._

 _Then have patience. Things will improve soon._

 _Why's that?_ She stopped, feeling the phantom hand tilt her head up to the sky.

Scanning through the thousands of colors and stars above, she saw them. A dozen or so copters making their way towards London. She could even see Enrico Maxwell, trapped in, of all things, a clear box, or likely protected by it. It was laughable.

Her nose caught the scent of fresh blood, warm and untouched by the fire and slaughter beneath her.

"Humans," she murmured then giggled. "Iscariot sent humans to fight off vampires?"

 _Seems the Catholics want to start a crusade in Hell. So be it then._ Alucard's voice was laced with a new thrill. _We might even find an equal in the mess. Someone to challenge our strengths. Humans_ are _the only creatures that can kill a true Nosferatu, Police Girl. Remember that well. You can't underestimate that which fears us the most._

She had to question him, even a little, for that. How on earth could _humans_ be more dangerous than _vampires_? She had mowed down nearly a hundred of them in Rio. These would be no different.

 _At least try to act scared, Police Girl._

 _But they'll be too easy to kill, Master._

 _Then leave them to me. With any luck, Anderson will be somewhere close to Maxwell, which means I can have my fun._

She sighed mockingly. "Fine. I'll be finishing off the Nazis then. That's the deal."

Not waiting for his agreement or argument or whatever else came out of his head, Seras chased off after the group she'd let slip away.

Soon, she found herself racing through the streets, chasing after cowardly vampires who themselves were tailing a vehicle. She almost didn't recognize Sir Integra's car, having barely seen it herself in her time at the manor. Blood on the wheels and smeared a tad along the sides had further marred its familiarity.

She brandished her scythe, slicing through one of them before pinning another down with it. She eyed her second form in the car, then tore into the shoulder of her prey and dragged back the last one to finish him off as well.

As quick as she finished them off, she saw the being that dared attack Integra. She had to move this time, barely enjoying her meal.

Once Walter listened and drove away from the danger, she focused her attention on the man before her.

Quite an intimidating one, as tall as her Master. Maybe even as gruff and grizzled as him too. He had an intimidating air to him, raw power almost emanating from each step closer to her.

She looked back at her scythe, but decided against it. She had her rifle if she needed a weapon.

The faint creaking of metal met her ears. They both looked up at the airship, one she hadn't noticed until now, to her shock. This one was different from the one she'd dealt with before. Red and black checkered pattern, larger and better equipped.

The ship trained its lights right on her and she hissed, temporarily blinded by the brightness. Shielding the light away with an arm, she growled, daring the strange man to try using this to his advantage. She knew Millennium wasn't afraid of using nasty little tricks.

Actually, that reminded her of something.

"Ah, if it isn't the little Police Woman, Seras Victoria. Not who we were expecting, but equally as delightful to see." That was the nasty, cunning voice of the Major. She recalled that same demeaning tone having been used to address her back at the interrupted meeting with the Queen.

Back then, she hadn't allowed it to annoy her. She was focused on personal matters. Now, however, his voice ground on her nerves and she couldn't put down as to why.

The lights moved, giving her the freedom to see her enemy. The man still stood there, watching her, seemingly defending his leader. She'd have to go through him to get to that irritating pig of a man.

"You sure did a number on the Lieutenant, didn't you? What a show that was!" The Major's hearty cackles blasted through the street. "I knew from the moment I first saw your work in Brazil, you would be a force to be reckoned with. A true Nosferatu, yes? Your Master has trained you well."

"What the hell do you want?" she hissed, tired of his inane ramblings.

She could tell he was restraining himself from his mirth. "War, mein fraulein. Haven't you learned that by now? Surely you've come to understand the beauty of battle. It's in your veins, isn't it?"

Puzzled by this, Seras glared at the vague figure she could make out on top of the blimp.

"Yes. You feel it within you. Madness, desire, hunger. A yearning for the endless threat of war fifty years in the making."

At this, she shivered. Her body tensed, the blood within crying out in agreement. She looked down at her hands, finding them trembling and aching for satiation. Even her fangs seemed to react, her jaw tightening as she forced this wild thirst back.

What was happening to her?

"Oh, you seem surprised by this. Yes, we did have something planned for such an occasion. Zorin was sent to kill you after all, and once that obviously didn't happen, we made sure there was something left to finish the job. Or at least weaken you enough for the wolves." He laughed at a joke she could barely understand. She hardly had the time to focus on that.

Her gaze darted back to the man before her, the blood screeching at her. She knew who this man was. The Captain. Not hers, but Millennium's.

This was the mighty beast meant to destroy her and her Master, along with one other. This was a werewolf.

"I suppose," the Major's voice returned, "I can give you a choice, little one."

She bared her fangs at him, angered that he dared use that nickname. That was not his privilege; that was her Master's! This maggot had no freedom to call her such names!

" _Of course he does. He is the Major. He leads the madness of war._ "

No! Not again! "Be quiet!" she hissed.

"No, I don't think I will, fraulein. In fact, I can tell you're having some trouble disagreeing with yourself. You vampires have such troubles with unwilling blood. Some might call it a weakness, don't you think? I can offer you the chance to change that, if you'd like. The Doctor is very good at making your kind stronger. With the blood we have on supply, we might even be able to free you from your bonds to your Master."

Free her? From her Master? He couldn't possibly have that kind of power. Could he? Now that she was thinking about it, she wasn't sure at all. The damned blood wasn't telling her what she wanted to know anymore.

" _Imagine it. Being free to kill all who stand in your way. Powerful, cruel, unyielding to madness. Not even Hellsing would be able to stand against you._ "

"Lies! Lies, lies, lies!" she screeched, holding her head in her hands. The chorus of screams only intensified.

" _The Major can lead you on the path to greatness. You can even best_ him _. Toy with his servitude, making him suffer and even beg for mercy if you wanted. Integra wouldn't be able to stop you. She'd be dead at your feet before she could bark out the damn order. These Hellsing dogs would be nothing to you._ "

Without realizing, she fell back, curling in on herself and trying to kick away the insanity.

The fat man cackled once more. "Seems your hubris has crumbled to dust, Fraulein Victoria. Much like you will, unless you wish to join our mighty cause? Hm?" His cruel question dug into her skin.

" _Join? No, return to him. Return to the one who leads you. He will make you strong once more. He can end the madness._ "

"P-Please," she whimpered. "Make it stop!"

"I suppose it's more than just Zorin's blood making you like this. My army of vampires come with a tang of disorder as well. They all obey me, just as they obey the call of war. You will choose, Seras. Eternal war or living in the shadow of your soon-to-be-forgotten Master?"

" _Do it._ "

Soon to be? What did that...

Oh, right. Zorin knew that. Hell, some of the soldiers mocked her about it too. She already knew that.

Then what would become of her? She'd be lost without him, wouldn't she? He had so much left to teach her, right? She had tricked her way into becoming this strong, but that would only last so long. What would be her breaking point?

She wasn't strong enough for this. She wasn't cut out to be a vampire on her own. She wasn't! She couldn't even silence the souls, no matter how much she tried.

Seras relied too much on the strength her Master had given her. The courage he'd instilled in her mind had waned without him here. She would never last on her own without his guidance.

She was useless without him. She didn't want to be.

The Captain strode up to her, looming over her in wait.

The scent of power and dog fur blended in with the blood. Swirling. Infinite. Waiting. Lurking.

Hungry. She was so hungry. She had bitten her lip to stop the whimpers and in doing so tasted her own blood. Why do that when there was so much around to drink up? What was she thinking, wasting her own?

The beastly werewolf grunted when a blood bat squeaked and jerked its tiny little body around in front of his face. Soon, another joined it, both circling the air above the poor girl. If one watched from the right angle, it would seem as though the two spritely creatures were fighting.

Then, before his eyes, they transformed into two large dogs, growling at the Captain and snapping their teeth at him. When he jumped back, the two bared their sharp maws, eyes red with hunger.

The black furred one stepped closer to the enemy, his pointed ears pressed back and claws ready to tear into flesh.

The white and brown dog turned its attention to Seras, nudging its snout against her head and lolling its tongue out in preparation to lick.

She looked between the two, surprised to have done such a thing. Was it because of the scent of fur that she'd created these two? Perhaps these two had been two souls she'd collected off the streets as she wandered about. She wasn't keeping track of what she collected after all. There were far too many at this point.

"So be it then."

Seras gasped as a searing pain began at her shoulder, shooting straight through her left arm until the fire coursed through every vein and bone. Then the flames pushed through the skin, a deep, unheard of agony spreading from her fingertips and right back to her shoulder.

"Ah, so there she is. Well, I hope you can make do without an arm in a fight."

Barking and biting sounded with her screams. She recognized the fire, the same one from Alhambra and Jan's deaths. Her brain briefly recalled the concept of microchips embedded within the ghouls and vampires. In her thrashing, she caught sight of the Captain beating back the two dogs, hearing their whimpers of distress as they hit the ground.

This fire stung just as badly as the blessed bullets. Of course it did. It had to turn her completely to dust. That was the point of the chips, once the host vampire failed.

" _Return to him. You promised you'd return to him. You can't fail him now. Endure. Get up and fight!_ "

Easier said than done, damn it! She was sort of busy with something!

" _Endure. You have to! You can't fail him now! You can't betray them now. Stand and fight! Integra said it's an order!_ "

Endure the pain? She couldn't feel anything but the pain. It was even starting to spread to her neck, trying to choke her in its blue purity.

She slammed the side of her head against the ground, attempting to use her legs and good arm to stop the spread by pulling the offending arm off. She'd seen her Master lose a limb or two. It shouldn't be that hard to imitate and regrow. She'd done it before, right?

Through her connection, one of her familiars agreed. Yes, this... This wouldn't be _so_ bad. Not. At. All.

Her shoulder popped from the socket easily, joints likely burnt off at this point. Her elbow twisted at an odd angle. Her hand was almost ashes and bone. All unrecognizable meat.

Easy. Easy.

She heard the dogs trying again to ward off the Captain, buying her time to do this.

The fire tickled at her chin, though not as strong as the direct flames. She could handle this. She can do this.

Her flesh and muscle seemed to melt off before she actually tore it off trying to twist further. Her bones crackled like splintering wood once she finally had the arm off.

Free hand patting away the small embers on her chest, she scrambled away from the arm as it turned to dust.

With a huge sigh of relief, she relaxed, only to jerk to attention when her dogs landed in a beaten pile at her side. Her attention was immediately back to the Captain, who seemed barely phased by her familiars' distractions. In a flash, he was in front of her, attempting to drop kick her.

She rolled out of the way, nervously eyeing the empty space where her arm used to be. She didn't have time to focus on healing it back yet. She'd have to work without it.

No problem? Hopefully, yes.

She stumbled to her feet and dodged a grab at her head easily enough. With barely seconds to think, she darted to her right, narrowly avoiding a swift punch, and grabbed her rifle off her back. Firing a couple shots was easy, but with only one arm, she couldn't exactly reload fast enough. She hadn't actually considered this scenario in practice.

It wouldn't even matter now anyway, as the Captain was completely unaffected by the bullets. The bullet wounds hissed smoky white vapors as they healed. She was reminded of Anderson in the way the man barely reacted to the pain.

Before Seras could react, the werewolf, a fact she needed to remind herself because she had no idea how to kill such a beast besides baseless fiction, snatched the gun from her hand. She tumbled around him once more, avoiding a nasty beat down with the handle of the rifle, only to whimper as she watched it break into various pieces.

Familiar and wild hyena-like laughter faded into the distance, but she paid it little mind. The Captain gave it some attention before completely turning and dashing at her once more.

Her back hit the wall of a building and she immediately used it to her advantage, disappearing into the veil in between. Her shoulder, where the healing had only barely begun, protested, her energy having been split multiple ways at this point. She couldn't stay in here long if she didn't find more blood soon and quick.

Wait, what was she thinking? There was blood all over the streets. She just needed to get to enough of it to help herself.

She was about to head left, but right before she could, the darkness there seemed to shatter and disappear. She couldn't push past it, unless she wanted to leave through the barrier and back out into the real world.

He'd broken through that part of the wall. He knew she was in here!

The thin barrier rippled and came closer as the wall crumbled further. She had to move fast before he found her. Who knew what he had in mind if he caught her? Tear her limb from limb, probably. This one seemed like all muscle.

She sensed his movements, finding his power shifting into the building, then bounded out and onto the streets. As fast as her legs could move, she sprinted away, sensing her dogs on either side of her.

The black one howled and darted off, leaving her and the other to continue running. The other one yelped, then seemed to trip on its own paws and tumble to the ground. Seras skidded to a stop, only to regret doing so as a bullet pierced through her neck. As she fell back, she felt her own blood pool in her mouth and tried her best to swallow it back down.

Her brain scrambled for ideas, her gaze darting about until she saw a pile of dead bodies nearby. Then she heard groaning. Ghouls, either coming from the inside the pile or somewhere else nearby. It didn't matter to her. She just needed to get to the blood.

She looked back to her enemy, remembering that she needed to keep track of him as well in order to survive. The Captain held in his hand a pistol, presumably what he used to shoot her and the dog. He seemed to wait, watching her, eyes silently daring her to move.

Feeling the pain in her throat, she could tell those bullets weren't the normal kind. Not exactly blessed, but it still stung and even tasted terrible. She had half a mind to cough out the bullet, but didn't, out of fear of tasting another soon after.

She couldn't move, unless she wanted more pain, and wasn't too far away from the nearest large source of blood. Eyeing the bodies again, she focused on a pool of blood at the base, willing it to come to her.

The Captain seemed to notice, suddenly hurrying towards her and choking her as he held her up. His other hand pointed the long barrel of his gun at her temple. He grumbled, or maybe growled, since he was a werewolf.

Oh, she hadn't even seen his wolf form and she was barely holding on at this point.

In a split second, she was free. The blood had struck at the hand holding her, slicing through the wrist. She barely had a moment to collect her thoughts and decide to act when something in the back of her skull urged her _not_ to drink the blood now.

What? Why? Make up your damn mind!

As she shuffled back, her eyes caught sight of the Captain, whose wrist dripped blood in thick, heavy drops into the pool. His skin hissed violently as bone and muscle made quick work regrowing.

He looked right at her, through her even, and bared his teeth, sharp canines threatening to tear her to pieces. Seems she struck a nerve or two.

She bolted off to the pile of bodies, deciding it best to at least try to find some energy to fight with. The strain was starting to grate on her, being conscious in multiple places at once. She'd have to fix that soon, if she found a way out of this.

Her body reacted faster than she did when the werewolf fired at her again. All at once, she disappeared into what she at first thought was the ground beneath her.

Then she heard the moaning, all too familiar to her ears. It wasn't loud, by any means, but it was there and made sure she knew it.

This world around her was different, swirls of black and red, seemingly endless and yet with a limit to it. There were people here, walking around, ghoul-like in their strides. They seemed lost, confused, and dead. Most certainly dead. Their faces held vacant stares into the distance, but there was still awareness to something in them.

Seras took a few steps toward the closest one, waving her hand in front of the man's eyes. He didn't even look at her or acknowledge her actions and existence, choosing instead to turn and stumble away.

What was left of the half dozen people reacted similarly, leaving her almost as confused as they all were.

Then she grabbed one of them, curious now. She had a theory.

Carefully, she bit into the woman's arm, watching for a reaction. When none came, she momentarily furrowed her brow, only to relax into the feeding. It felt like literal millennia had passed since her last full meal. This war had been going on not too long, but simple actions felt like an eternity.

Seras licked her fangs in delight, almost drunkenly walking towards another person and biting into their neck. It was only after she had finished this one off did she notice that the body had completely disappeared. She decided against questioning it for now, continuing until no one was left in this little realm of bloodlust.

As quickly as she came into this world, she was forced right back out by the barrier, flung at a lamp post.

She groaned and rubbed the back of her head, then flinched out of the way when her lanky brown and white dog was tossed in front of her.

When she searched for her enemy, she was astonished to find a huge, mighty wolf with radiant white fur looming over her. So... this was the werewolf's true form.

Gulping, Seras shrunk back and tried to think of something to do. She had no weapon, but she did feel better. Her arm wasn't back yet, but she could feel the process slowly working at her shoulder. As long as she made sure not to hurt the area, she was sure she'd have something akin to an arm back before she was done. At least, that was her hope.

Her dog had done a bit of damage while distracting the beast and if he had turned into this form, it meant the Captain was either losing patience or energy of his own trying to kill her without transforming. She hoped the latter was the case.

He charged at her, snapping his long canines at where she once was then moving again to bite into her leg as she ran.

She made sure to grab her familiar, keeping the hound under her good arm until they were at a safer distance.

"Okay, doggie. You understand the plan, right?" she questioned the mutt, who whined and tilted its head. It stuck out its tongue, as if completely unaware of the danger coming at them.

Seras sighed and tried to telepathically speak to the creature, only to come up with nothing as well. Strange. Wasn't the dog the same kind of illusion familiar she'd created before with her duplicates? It was just a different form. How different was it to control? The bats had been no real problem, not that she dealt with them much anyway.

They were split by the Captain biting at the space between them right as they dodged.

Without hesitation, Seras bounded over the werewolf, calling out to her dog, "Fetch! Fetch!"

The silly animal barked twice in understanding as it ran off, practically stumbling on its mangly legs in its excitement. Seras bolted in the other direction, leading the Captain away. At least, that's what she wanted to believe she was doing. He probably didn't care what her dog did, since she was left alone for him to kill with no more distractions.

She hissed at the sudden jolt of pain at her shoulder. Though momentary, it hurt enough to earn her attention. She could see a mass of pointed shadows and blood poking out, twisting around in a hurried attempt to form an arm. Her Master had been right. Regrowing body parts was difficult _and painful_. A new arm was growing though and that was honestly all she needed.

The Captain seemed to speed up his pace, intending to halt her healing by chomping at her, breaking her run and concentration. While he wasn't successful at either, he was right at her heels, which meant she had to act to avoid losing another limb.

Looking over her shoulder one last time to make sure her little maneuver would work, she jumped, launched herself back and flipped over her opponent. She barely managed to land on her two feet when she was immediately back to running, this time the way she came. She didn't need to look back to know the Captain was trying to catch up again.

There, in the distance, was her dog. Both of them, actually, to her surprise. She'd almost forgotten the black furred one had run off earlier. She was glad to see her scythe in the other one's teeth, dragging it by the handle.

Seras snatched it out of the dog's mouth, not bothering to mention the drool, but mentally acknowledging it. Gross. Glancing at her healing arm, the shadows had formed most of it and she could almost feel it again. The fingers seemed stiff and her elbow felt solid, but beyond that, she had no control over it yet.

Keeping pace, her dogs at either side and wolf still chasing her, Seras wasn't sure exactly what to do next. She still didn't have a way to kill the werewolf, but she was making progress towards being able to fend him off until her Master returned.

Oh God, was she actually considering letting her sire take care of her problems? She shook her head and growled. She needed to take care of this herself. How was she going to prove herself to those she was supposed to protect if she couldn't fight her own battles? No, she needed to defeat the Captain.

How? Well, she was still working on that. What were werewolves' weaknesses? Vampiric weaknesses were the only thing she truly knew for sure. Silver? Silver was something she knew from the books and movies, though she'd learned not to trust those as factual sources as of late.

The black dog snarled and growled, and it was then that she noticed something in its mouth. She could make out the prongs of a gnarled fork poking through its teeth. Did... Did it actually fetch a silver fork in all this mess?

She yelped when a shadow passed over her head, the Captain cutting off her sprint. It took all her strength to stop and still keep steady on her feet. She had no choice but to act now, it seemed.

Part of her sort of hoped the excitement would've lasted. All things must come to an end, unfortunately for her.

Finally able to hold her scythe with her left hand again, she swung it at the wolf, knowing he would dodge back or duck to avoid it. Thankfully, he did the former, giving her enough time to pull the mangled silverware out of her block dog's willing maw.

The wolf's determined and deadly expression turned somehow eager and hopeful. Finally, he seemed to say, he was getting a real fight. A real chance at death.

Strange. But then again, this was a Millennium member she was fighting. All of them were asking for death, weren't they?

"Here, doggy," she mockingly cooed, waving the bent fork around.

The Captain howled, a sound that vibrated the air around them and pounded at her ears. Though she was temporarily stunned, she still noticed his charge and grit her teeth in anticipation of the attack.

His claws dug into her shoulders, his sharp teeth threatening to decapitate her. The raw energy coursing through his fur burned at her skin.

Instead of focusing on the screaming pain, she let it motivate her, fuel her to react accordingly. Grip tightening on the fork's handle, she forced it directly into the Captain's heart. Once. Twice. A third, once she broke through a rib or two. She screeched when his teeth dug into the sides of her head.

No! None of that! Get off!

She pulled at his jaw, hearing at sickening snap as she tore it right off. Her renewed hand turned into a fist and punched his snout, a few bones there crunching as well.

The silver seemed to work quick. He couldn't heal anymore.

As Seras kicked the Captain off her, she cringed at the horrible, twisted, garbled, and animalistic wailing he tried screaming out. He appeared shocked, confused, and in such terrible agony, she almost felt pity for him.

Then his expression became acceptance. The light in those mystifying wolf eyes seemed to fade. He almost looked... happy. The glow of his fur, his energy, dimmed as he collapsed. His form slowly morphed back to his human one. His body was still, lifeless.

" _He is dead._ "

" _Lucky._ "

" _I wonder what that's like._ "

" _He's glad. It must be nice._ "

Her cheerful dog barked and licked at her head, lapping up blood from her bite wounds. Seras smiled and thanked the silly creature by petting it.

The other one, likely wanting a similar reward, nudged its nose against her new hand. She obliged, even scratching behind its pointed ears and cooing, "You did such a good job. Both of you! Yes, you did! Such good dogs!"

For a second, she considered the two unique familiars. She could tell, from the way they behaved to their looks and cut off minds, they weren't like her other ones. She couldn't explain why either. Their power felt no different from the bats. More questions to ask her Master when he returned.

Her smile grew. That's right!

Seras sprung to her feet, grabbing her scythe and looking to both her dogs with a new confidence.

"Come along, you two," she ordered before she swerved on her heel, completely disregarding her latest kill now that that fun was over. Her loyal hounds flanked her, ready to obey her orders. With renewed vigor, she began walking. To where, she wasn't entirely sure, but she moved nonetheless.

"We have promises to keep."


	8. The Return

Seras was alone. Standing in Integra's office, she observed the view of hellish London through the window.

She had left the Wild Geese down by the kitchen area, allowing them the freedom to relax and pour a few dozen glasses of expensive wine from the stock on the promise that she'd take the burden of responsibility. It was fine. They deserved it for defending the manor.

Pip had offered to pour her a personal drink, already a little tipsy and waving a combat knife around as if to tempt her. Obviously, she didn't take it, but the thought was flattering enough. She still had to chuckle at his goofy expression.

None of them had any idea what kind of wine they were drinking and yet they drank so much so heartily. She was jealous.

The thought came with a solemn sigh.

She'd never be able to drink like that again. Not really. No joy in tasting new drinks when you couldn't even choke it down. Never feel the happiness of surviving another day. This day would become a memory lost in millions of others. That moment, a warm, temporary, happy feeling and nothing more. " _They would all eventually die and you'll never be able to clearly describe to someone what that expression looked like, because your Captain would be long gone, six feet under. You'd never see that face again, or tell your kids about it, because unlike him, you'll never–_ "

Her fist slammed the corner of Integra's desk, splintering the wood. Letting out a heavy breath, she buried that train of thought in the deep recesses of her mind. It wasn't one she'd allow tainting their victory.

Instead, she focused on the car in the distance, making its way to the manor. She'd have to tell Pip to greet them back in, or in reality tell a sober Theo to haul Pip's drunken ass to the foyer and help him stand up straight long enough for Seras to vouch for the mercenary's behavior.

She nodded to herself, nipping at her bottom lip before giving one last look out the window and turning to head off.

* * *

"I assume there's one out there taking care of all the mess, while another handles the mercenaries in the mansion?" Integra's voice was clear and confident, but there was a twinge of hopeful uncertainty.

"Very perceptive, sir. I knew you'd understand." Seras' tone sounded as if she was speaking to a child, but Integra could tell this Seras wasn't entirely sane.

"And you can communicate mentally between all three?" Integra continued, growing ever more curious. This wasn't something she'd seen Alucard do, but then again, the vampire was a 600-year-old enigma to everyone. Maybe he had such an ability but never had to use it.

"It's a bit of a strain, but, in a way, yes. And before you ask, I'm the weakest of the three. The other two have more souls inside them and time to collect even more. Think of me as a communication relay. I can tell you what's happening out there and nothing more." Seras giggled, puffing her chest out proudly. "Pretty convenient for a simple one soul bat familiar, don't you think?"

Narrowing her gaze at the vampire, Integra watched those mad, wide eyes as they darted between her and the chaos outside.

As they neared the manor, Seras suddenly giggled hysterically, then hissed out, "Don't worry. Your secret's safe with me. What they don't know won't hurt them."

"Police Girl, what on earth are you going on about?" Integra scolded. This was worrying, to say the least. Either Seras was hiding something, or one of the souls was trying to break free. Integra was aware that vampiric energies had a tendency to make themselves known at the worst of times.

Seras glared at the rearview mirror, then turned to the Hellsing leader and shook her head. "Shh! It's a secret. He told me not to tell."

"Who?"

The vampire remained silent on the matter, ignoring Integra's persistent and continued questioning.

As the car made its way past the front gates of the manor, Integra saw the remains of a hard-fought battle strewn across the yard. The corpse of a destroyed airship rested by the front entrance, like the skeleton of a long-decayed whale.

The ground was an empty battlefield, the clear victors stumbling out of the front doors. Theo groaned as he helped his Captain stand.

Once Walter opened her door and allowed her out of the car, Integra glared at the two soldiers standing before her. Was... Was the Captain drunk?

"H-Hello, sir," Theo stuttered as he nudged Pip's side to make him somewhat alert to the situation.

"Yeah! Right! Hey!" Pip rubbed the side of his head in an attempt to ward off the sluggishness.

"Seras," Integra snapped, the vampire straightening at the call. "What is the meaning of this?"

Theo's eyes widened and he blubbered something incoherent, pointing between his boss and the Police Girl. The Captain appeared similarly confused, nodding to his companion.

Seras smiled sheepishly, the madness still somewhat present in her eyes. "I _may_ have allowed the Geese to drink from wine in storage. I hope you don't mind. It's almost gone by now, if you're curious." She eyed the two mercenaries, even winking at Theo.

With a sigh, Integra decided against reprimanding the Captain or Police Girl. At this point, doing so would be a waste of time. Instead, she entered her mansion, finding the place wasn't even a scratch out of line. The Police Girl had done well to ensure the place was safe for her return.

"'Ey, cher. You still looking for a drink?" Pip joked, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. He had the brightest smile on his face and his body was positively glowing with warmth. It was tempting, his offer, but she was concerned about his sense of judgment and whether she should take advantage of that. It probably wasn't wise.

"Thanks, but I think I'll pass. How much have you had, exactly?" Seras asked, playfully raising a brow and tilting her head.

"Eh, one. Maybe two."

"Glasses?"

"Dozen," Pip joked, running a hand through her hair.

She laughed with him, honestly not doubting his answer.

"So, are you gonna join us now that Integra's back, or are you going to wait for Alucard too?"

"Pip, I already said no once. Don't make me say it again."

"Come on, cher," he drawled, leaning his head against hers. "You need to relax. Live a little, Seras."

"First of all, I'm dead," she said, poking at his chest. "Secondly, I still have things to do, so I'll relax once I'm finished, alright?" She pushed him back, giving Theo little time to react before grabbing the drunken mercenary. "I promised you, Pip. I won't go back on my word. I haven't yet."

Pip eyed her, her words slowly sinking into his muddled thoughts. "Cher?" he murmured, his eye widening.

"Yes, Captain?"

"Who are you?"

The question came out of nowhere, and she wasn't sure exactly how to respond. It had to be the wine, right? He couldn't possibly know she wasn't entirely Seras.

Nevertheless, she didn't say a word, turning and walking away as quickly as she could. She bit back the worry and fear, burying it so she could focus on the task at hand.

Once she made her way to Integra's office, she found Walter and Integra waiting at the doors, listening in on something. There was a faint scratching sound behind the door, as if something wanted to come out. Walter cautiously opened it and out shot a bat, squeaking happily and circling around each of them before landing on Seras' shoulder.

"You don't say," Seras spoke to the tiny creature as Integra and Walter made their way in.

Integra sat at her desk, letting out a long sigh before she acknowledged the vampire with a crook of the brow.

"Master's back, sir," Seras declared, bouncing up to the desk with a twinkle in those red eyes, like the happiest child on their birthday. "He has returned."

* * *

Unable to resist, she picked at one of the skin patches growing on her shadowy arm. Walking aimlessly through the ruins of London was proving to be quite boring. She couldn't attack the Catholic forces, so she readily hid from them whenever she had to. The Nazis were avoiding her, likely having warned each other that she was on the prowl.

That really left her with nothing to do but lurk around and think.

Her dogs had gone off to scavenge for blood to heal themselves. She was sure they could take care of each other, should they run into any trouble. Naming them hadn't been an interesting prospect until she realized she'd simply been referring to them by the color of their fur. She honestly had no idea if they would stick around long enough for that to even matter.

Unlike her bat illusions, they didn't require much maintenance from her, as if they functioned separately but connected to her, just like her Master had said familiars could. They definitely didn't pull from her power as much as the illusions, though she supposed that made sense. Keeping her illusions solid and true required focusing part of herself on them, unrelated to her own vampiric power.

She wasn't tempted to test her limits on any of it just yet, but once her Master returned and this whole mess was over, she was definitely practicing to get better at familiars and illusions. Zorin's unwillingness would break eventually. It was only a matter of time before Seras understood the full extent of the Nazi woman's tricks, once she gave in. And boy, would that be fun.

Seras hissed as her shadows rejected her insistent and childish behavior. She was just curious! Besides, the healing was almost done. All that was left were small scratch shaped holes slowly being filled in. That once numb feeling she had trying to move her newly formed arm turned into a soft tingling sensation that traveled through her veins with every slight movement. It was rather satisfying, albeit weird. Were it not for the fact that removing limbs hurt so much, she would've tried to recreate the feeling constantly. Regular healing didn't feel the same, that's for sure.

Agonized screaming met her ears, and she looked down below in search of the source. Having a clear view of the bloody streets, she saw a group of people, humans, locked in a small firearms battle with a couple of vampires and ghouls.

The ghouls were no problem, it seemed, but the Nazi vampires were clearly unrelenting. Strange. It wasn't everyday regular humans carried around blessed bullets.

A silhouette appeared behind the soldiers, but before they could react, their heads were all chopped clean off with a single, mighty swipe of the blade. Seras was honestly impressed. Then she saw who it was.

A... nun? Well, at least she was dressed like one. Her expression and weapon of choice sort of blew that innocent cover out of the water. A Catholic, by the looks of it. Most likely human too. And yet there was something unique to her that Seras couldn't quite put down.

"Heinkel, are you alright?" this fascinating woman cried out to one of the humans on the other side of the battlefield.

Of the few in the group, one stood out as particularly interesting. Seras had to question the name, but this new face in the crowd made the answer quite clear.

"Just fine, Yumie. Those stupid Nazi bastards don't know when to give up." The accent on this one was absolutely jarring. Was it... Was that German? A German Catholic fighting Nazi vampires. Incredible. Seras was eager to know more.

"What do you mean by that?" the one named Yumie questioned once she was closer to her companions.

"According to Anderson, there aren't that many of these lowlifes left. Apparently what's left has been hiding from that Hellsing vampire." Anderson? As in, Alexander Anderson? These were Section XIII members? Iscariot? A sword-wielding nun and a German sharpshooter? Oh, how laughably amazing.

Seras really, _really_ wanted to make herself known now. She wanted to interact with these two, see their full potential, learn from them. These two were better than all of Millennium's one-trick vampires combined. And they were humans!

Oh, but she agreed to leave the Catholics to her Master. Damn! Now she definitely regretted that little decision. If only she'd known better entertainment would come her way.

"Wait, do you mean–"

"Seras. Seras Victoria," came the reply, only not from Heinkel. To her surprise and amusement, Anderson trudged onto the scene, his bayonets and gloves covered in a thick layer of blood.

A foreign thrill traveled through her, likely from her connection to her Master. He was probably using that to his advantage. He was so close now, she could feel it in her veins. Her Master was headed this way. Yay!

Wild howling and barking echoed through the roads and alleyways. Her pets! What were those two thinking? They'd give away her hiding spot! Silly dogs!

"What the hell?" Heinkel exclaimed, aiming her weapon at the animals as they scrambled down the street. Yumie unsheathed her sword, equally as prepared.

"Stand down, you two! You wouldn't want that psychopathic she-demon to drop down here to avenge her mangy mutts, would you?" Anderson peered up at the rooftops, calling out, "I know you're up there, vampire. Don't think you can hide from me that easily. Show yourself."

Seras honestly considered remaining silent, so the priest would appear absolutely mad to his companions, but her dogs' continued whining and howling were no help to her situation. Oh well...

Poking her head out and over the ledge, she replied, "That's no fun. It was going to be a surprise." She stood, prepared to jump should one of them try to attack, and reveled in the collective gasps from Anderson's naive troop.

The brown and white dog, excitable as ever, sprang up the wall to make its way up to her. The black dog stayed below, growling at Alexander.

"Father Anderson, should we–" Yumie spoke, only to be interrupted.

"No. She's not the one we're after. Not yet." Anderson glared at the vampire, an intent to kill evident in his expression.

"What's wrong, sir? Are you afraid to fight me?" Seras questioned, a devilish smirk forming.

"Of course not. I'll gladly end you once we're done with that monster you call a sire." With a flourish, the priest spun his bayonets around, the blood flying off and onto the ground.

"Fortunately for you, my Master's forbidden me from attacking you Iscariots. I wouldn't be able to fight back, even if you asked me to. He wants you all to himself," she alluded, standing on the edge of the building confidently. She rather liked this, tempting fate and annoying her enemy. She could see why Alucard enjoyed mocking others so, though she knew this enemy wasn't one she should challenge.

Anderson scoffed, "Such bold words from a monster." He watched her childish actions, the way her movements were so wild and purposeful at the same time. "You've changed since that day in Ireland, vampire. The same innocent facade and dangerous interior, but stronger now. I can see it in your eyes."

At first, Seras wasn't sure what to say to that. It was surprising to hear coming from someone she once feared. Yes, she certainly had changed. "Thank you. My Master started properly training me once I drank blood like a proper vampire. It's only fitting to find a difference now. I'm not afraid of what he turned me into."

"And where _is_ your Master, fledgling?" To emphasize his words, he flung a bayonet towards the ground in front of her black dog, who whimpered, scrambling up to Seras as fast as its paws could help it.

A deep lulling growl met her ears. She turned to find the source, but couldn't see him. Her dogs yipped and squeaked in protest as she backed off, listening to the faint murmurs of her Master's power. He was close, she could sense it, like all the times she trained to do so.

Gaze landing on her shadow, she gasped, but her smile quickly returned.

One. Two. Five. A dozen. Soon, her shadow became his silhouette, filled with eyes. His form appeared, tall and looming, grinning at her. His presence was pleasant, cold, and all too familiar.

"Master, you're back!" she exclaimed, eagerly moving towards him. She had half a mind to hug him, almost acted upon the desire even, but didn't. It was just because he'd been gone for what felt like forever. She'd missed him so much, so dearly.

"Of course, Police Girl. I made a promise, didn't I? You kept your end of our little bargain. It's only fair I kept mine." He leaned down to her eye level, gaze searching for something in her for a split second before he straightened and put all his attention on the group down below. "Alexander Anderson. I hear you've come to challenge me once in for all."

"Aye, I have. And this time, you won't be walking away unscathed, Alucard."

Seras' dogs growled, but at Alucard's sharp whistle, they stepped away, whimpering like frightened puppies behind the Police Girl. She'd have to ask him to teach her that little taming trick later. They only seemed to listen to her at the best of times.

"Anderson, we're supposed to–" Heinkel tried to remind him.

"Maxwell's orders aren't important, right now. He's out there making a right fool of himself while the enemy stands before us laughing. _I_ will take care of these two. You all go find that idiot and handle the situation with him."

"But, sir," Yumie urged, "you can't possibly deal with both on your own!"

"It's out of the question! Now leave! I wouldn't want any of you to get hurt here on my watch. Especially not by these two heathens." He made sure to emphasize his damning tone, bayonets prepared between his fingers, ready to pierce through Alucard's flesh.

Reluctantly, Heinkel and Yumie lead their team away, leaving Seras somewhat saddened. She looked to her Master, wanting to go after those two curious humans and hoping he'd let her. She wasn't sure if he would fight the priest alone or if what Anderson said was true and he'd fight both of them.

* * *

"We've intercepted Anderson and the Iscariots, sir. They... seem to be headed towards Maxwell. At least, that's what he ordered them to do," Seras described, looking out the window without really focusing on anything. She was concentrating on the connection to her real self. Now that she had more power, it was easier to handle, albeit strange.

She stepped back, turning to Integra, waiting for any kind of confirmation.

"And how are things looking otherwise?" Integra asked, calmly sitting at her desk, practically unmoving.

"Maxwell's forces are running rampant. Master said he was going to take care of it, but I'm not exactly sure how. Millennium is definitely low in numbers, but there's still some scattered about. The Major's last two airships are still around as well. I can take care of them, if you'd like."

"Is Alucard nearby?"

"Right next to me, sir."

Integra sighed, seemingly contemplating something Seras hadn't the foggiest clue of. Her brow was furrowed, determination setting in. "Walter, do you think... Is it the right time?"

At the question, the butler responded, "If you believe it to be, then perhaps you should, sir. My word should have little bearing on your judgment."

With this in mind and after a few minutes of silence, Integra turned back to Seras. "Tell him to release Restriction Level Zero."

Despite having no idea what that meant, she let the message go through. "Err, can I ask what exactly that means, sir?" she questioned out of curiosity.

Once more, Integra sighed, clearly not liking her decision. "It's the final restriction. Alucard's full power has been released."

His... full power? As in, all 600 years of blood and tyrannical, supernatural strength on display? Oh, she had to see this.

* * *

"Master," Seras called, leaning her full weight on her scythe, eager to kill now that the news came to her. "Sir Integra's allowed the release of Restriction Level Zero."

"Has she now?" Alucard chuckled, his wicked grin somehow growing. His eyes glimmered with a new thrill. "Then it has come to this then." He breathed a grand sigh, which came out like mist.

Seras stepped back, hesitant to stick around but curious to see what would happen next. Her own power seemed to react to this excitement, screaming at her to act in some way.

" _The Bird of Hermes is my name_ ," whispered her Master, but in a voice that seemed not his own. " _Eating my wings to make me tame._ " He jumped down, pulling out his pistols and taking his time walking to Anderson.

The priest growled and flung a handful of bayonets at the vampire, slicing through the monster's face and chest with the ease of a hot knife and butter. However, this did little to deter Alucard, who kept pace and chuckled at the futile efforts. His wounds became partial shadows instead of fully healing.

Once close enough, Anderson used two bayonets to slice through Alucard in a perfect X. The Hellsing beast barely reacted, his form quickly knitting back together, dark tendrils writhing out of the wounds.

Seras was awestruck by how easily her Master handled his healing, now that she understood what it took to accomplish such a feat. She had to imagine it hurt terribly, but considering his age and experience, he had to be used to such intense agony. She'd likely never enjoy the pain like he did. She could hardly handle blessed weapons still, even at her age.

Then Anderson sliced through Alucard's head, a clean, unwavering cut.

It took everything in her to not scream. It was okay. Her Master wouldn't _die_. It was impossible, especially now that he was free to unleash his full power. He'd heal back his head and probably shoot at Anderson, right?

Her body urged her to move and kill and consume. She was so suddenly and extremely hungry, but otherwise was perfectly fine. Why? She was fine just a moment ago.

Instead of healing into the shadowy silhouette of her Master's head, thousands of eyes poured out in massive black waves, forcing Anderson far away and becoming a river of blood, bodies, and, to Seras' shock, souls. She could make out the faces of peasants and the armor of knights, all tinged a dark crimson.

The horrible visage of a mindless mob swept across the streets, grabbing at anything once or still alive in some way and bringing it into itself.

And the _screaming_ , all too familiar to her, was all she heard. The cries of what was likely millions of souls coalesced into an endless cacophony of madness. That was all her ears were met with. Her attempt to muffle it by covering her ears was a useless effort from the start. This was something unavoidable.

So she gave in to the madness, giggling and running along the rooftops, following the flow of the stream. Her dogs howled and snapped their teeth like rabid, frothing animals as they followed their lunatic leader on this aimless venture.

Seras wanted to go down and find something to kill or bite into. Maybe her Master's army of souls could spare a peasant or two? No, she couldn't do that. That was stealing, cheating, not something she should do. She had to find her meals herself like a good fledgling. Maybe those two humans from before?

Yes, she was so hungry and they were perfectly untouched humans, likely pure virgin blood too. That was the tastiest kind, wasn't it? Her stomach yearned for satisfaction in a decent meal, and her muscles tensed with the desire to simply kill.

Without thinking, since her thoughts were centered on the slaughter rather than the hunt itself, she leaped across streets and past the raging rivers of power. Her mind barely recalled this as the direction the two Iscariot women lead their group. She itched to strike through the two, her scythe buried in the head of one while she ate at the other.

Who cared about fighting them? The battle was meaningless. She craved blood. That's all that mattered to her.

* * *

Seras let out an almost ear-splitting whine, holding her head and stumbling back.

"Are you alright, Seras?" Integra questioned, watching the fledgling familiar, both worried and intrigued.

"Wh-What is all this?" Seras asked through desperate whimpers. God, she was so damn hungry now. She had barely any will to hold back on attacking the nearest source of blood. Her fangs ached. Her body wanted to tear through muscle, tendons, ribs, and relish the feeling of a crushed, mangled corpse in her hands as she ate through the bloody red flesh.

Her breathing didn't help. Integra's pure blood was overwhelming her to the point that she needed to step away, keep a fair distance, place a hand over her nose and mouth. No more breathing. No killing. No thinking of killing.

No harming Sir Integra. Bad. Not what she should do. Not what Master liked.

But she smelled so delicious. Tantalizingly delectable.

Well, there _was_ Walter. Her Master wouldn't mind losing the butler, would he? Oh, just a taste wouldn't hurt. From either of them really. Yes, it was fine to try a sample. Master wouldn't mind at all.

" _Just a taste. A trifle. Nothing bad. Wouldn't hurt a soul. So little. No one would care._ "

That voice startled Integra, and she saw Walter react similarly to her, subtly shifting away from the vampire, apprehensive. That didn't sound like Seras at all.

"Police Girl?" Integra tried again to elicit a response from the fledgling. She couldn't see the girl's expression, her face hiding in the shadow of her bangs. She noticed the trembling, however. Seras was definitely struggling with dangerous thoughts.

"Sir," Walter spoke carefully, interrupting her worries, "you don't think... Alucard's full power might be _affecting_ Miss Victoria?" He kept his hands behind him, but his serpentine, razor-sharp wires waited behind him for the vampire's possible attack.

The Hellsing's gaze flickered back to the girl in question, who hadn't moved much if at all.

" _One bite. That's all. Master isn't here to stop us. So hungry. This mansion is full of blood going to_ waste _inside them. Please. Just._ Move _._ "

Seras snarled, suddenly chomping at the air. Her head jerked about, eyes shut tight as she fought a mental battle with her hunger.

"There's nothing we can do, Walter. Alucard has already unleashed his kingdom. Her madness can't be blamed for being an unintentional consequence of that." Despite the fear resting in her throat, Integra couldn't help observing the wild spasms and mild thrashing of the crazed fledgling.

With little hesitation, Seras slammed her head back against the wall she found herself pressed against. In the disorientation, she felt her desires protest and screamed as she collapsed into a heap of violent craving.

Do. Not. Kill. Integra. Or Walter. Or any of the Wild Geese.

She wasn't like the monsters they were facing. She didn't kill like a freak. She was a vampire of standards, damn it! She was her Master's creation. A servant to a trained dog. She wouldn't kill just because she'd lost her head.

Biting back the urge to pounce, she curled up into herself.

" _No! Get up, idiot! They're right there! Kill them! We're so hungry! Please! You can't do this! We need this! We need blood! These blood bags don't deserve it! We do!_ "

Her body wanted to turn absolutely violent, breaking anything and everything in sight just to free all these feelings inside her. All the anger, hunger, hate, annoyance, and fear needed an outlet. She needed to make something suffer for her to feel better. She trembled under the increasing pressure building in the pit of her stomach.

An idea came to mind, Integra slowly inching her hand towards one of the nearby pens on her desk. As quick as she could, she pressed the pointed tip of one hard enough into the skin of her index finger to draw blood.

Instantly, the vampire's eyes shot open, sniffing the air and growling. Her gaze darted between the two humans in the room until it landed on the Hellsing. The scent alone was intoxicating, enticing her to crawl just a centimeter closer. No more.

No killing Integra. Don't even think about it. Master would kill her if she so much as tried.

"Seras," the woman called rather cautiously. "Come here." She extended her bleeding finger out to the fledgling, but was surprised to see restraint. The Police Girl certainly was strong-willed. She wasn't afraid; if the girl tried to attack her, Walter was nearby to stop her.

The vampire licked her fangs, considered the human, then crept closer again, sounding a curious chitter.

" _That's it. Just a little more. She's practically giving herself to you._ "

The whispers were beginning to irritate, a tone far too arrogant for Integra's liking.

"Enough of that," she hissed.

Seras froze, tilting her head as if confused.

"I don't believe that's something she can control, sir," Walter commented.

"Is it something Alucard had issue with?"

"I can't entirely say, but it might just be Miss Victoria's unintentional way of coping with her madness. Until Alucard decides to help her deal with it, I assume."

"Well, it's no help at all." Integra huffed, but kept her bloody finger out for the vampire to take a lick at. Some of it slid down to her hand and a drop had fallen to the floor, the latter of which caused Seras to eagerly come closer.

"I doubt she listens to it. We'd likely be dead if she did."

Seras lapped up the few drops on the floor before letting her tongue drag along the self-inflicted wound, collecting as much as possible. It was an absolutely divine taste. Willingly given, fresh, and pure virgin blood. The temptation to drink it all almost took control.

" _Bite her!_ "

Stopping, Seras growled and shook her head like a dog, scrambling back. Her expression turned from confusion to conscious understanding, then alert to something different. She looked to the doors, and before either of them could ask what was wrong, she disappeared through the floor.

* * *

Hell grumbled, rubbing his snout with his paws. He looked to his sister, who happily chewed through the offered arm without a care in the world. No fair, his whine implied. Why did Sing get to eat it?

"You already had the other, silly dog," his owner reminded him, licking blood off her fingers. "Sing gets her share, you get yours. Maybe if you hadn't eaten it so damn fast, you would've enjoyed it."

Sing rolled over, her meal in her teeth, and wagged her tail like the happy puppy she was. Her excitement was encouraged by their owner, who rubbed her belly and cooed adoring gibberish.

Taking the chance, Hell made a fast grab for the arm, biting the broken end and trying to tug it out of Sing's mouth.

Seras flicked at the black dog's nose again, effective enough to make him let go. She rolled her eyes at his overdramatic, pained whimpers and focused on finishing her own meal.

Her hunting dogs, with their keen senses of smell, had found this fresh body in an otherwise untouched alleyway. She had no idea if this man was Nazi, citizen, or one of Maxwell's forces, his clothes and most of his skin torn off in what was likely a gruesome display, but blood was blood. Not like she was going to check the soul anyway.

"That's enough, Hell," she snapped, noticing the dog's slow creeping towards Sing's food. "Come and sit on this side, unless you promise to stop bothering her." She patted the space to her right, which the dog reluctantly moved to sit in. "Good boy. Now no more fighting, alright? If you behave, I'll consider giving you more." She pet the grumpy dog, who snorted and laid his head down on her lap.

She had to admit, the names she chose for these two were a tad cheesy, but she rather liked them. They definitely fit their personalities. Hell was the intimidating, grouchy black dog with a temper, while Sing was the goofy, happy-go-lucky brown and white pooch. While they obviously weren't the same breed of dog, she'd decided to consider them as siblings, since they were about the same size and similarly well-built for hunting. She had no idea what breeds they actually were, but Hell looked much more like a wolf than a dog, while Sing was a dopey-eared mutt of some kind.

Sing suddenly perked up, rolling back over, abandoning her meal, and barking at something.

Seras followed the direction the dog was looking at. There was nothing there but a bit of fog. "What the hell are you yelling at? Sing, enough. There's nothing there, you crazy thing. Sit down!" She grabbed the dog and pulled her close, forcing her to sit.

Hell grumbled with his sister, the two eyeing the fog, which Seras realized was slowly growing. She stood, kicking away the remains of her meal and grabbing her scythe.

"Who's there?" she said, her question laced with an unspoken threat. She bared her bloody fangs.

" _Don't._ "

"Quiet, you," she snapped, turning her head to glare at nothing.

A hand held her chin, moving her attention back. She gasped and stumbled away from the new presence. Her gaze connected with one seemingly alien to her own.

"There you are," the man spoke, his strange accent mixed in his words.

For a moment, Seras was unsure of why he looked and sounded so familiar. This tall man was dressed in medieval armor, by the looks of it, with a sword at his side, flowing hair billowing with his large, tattered, red and black cape. Part of her wanted to assume he was one of the strange souls down below, that had somehow defected and come to her.

And yet his eyes were... luring, warm, and filled with pride. She knew him.

"Master!" she cried as realization swept through her. She dropped her defensive stance and leaned into his touch, only to yelp when she was pulled in closer.

Was he... hugging her? What on earth had gotten into him?

Whatever it was, it was gentle and kind, and she rather liked it.

"My beautiful Seras," he purred into her ear.

"I missed you too, Master," she replied, bumping her head against his.

"How you've grown since I first turned you. A monster to rival even myself." His tone softened as he pet her head.

She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, returning the possessive hold with one of her own. Now that her Master was back, someone would have to pry him from her beaten corpse before they could have him.

Her dogs pined for their attention, Hell nudging his nose against Seras' leg while Sing pawed at Alucard's, even trying to bite at him.

"Hush up, you two," Seras ordered through a few giggles.

"Interesting pet familiars you've made. Created from the souls of dogs, I presume?" He chuckled at the brave mutt that chomped at his leg, nudging her back once her antics proved ineffective.

"I honestly have no idea. I was sort of hoping you'd tell me. I can't communicate with them like I do the bat familiars. It's rather irritating at times."

"I don't know much about your illusion familiars, but these are genuine hounds. Ones made separate but bonded to you. They obey you, but are their own thinking creatures. Surely you can tell that your bats don't behave exactly as you tell them to." He let her go, but was surprised to find she hadn't done the same.

She considered his words, then said, "They do."

"Without the illusions?"

That stumped her. "Can't say."

"Even a bat with one soul in it will react differently from you. Who knows what your other illusion is doing. She might obey your decisions sometimes, but then she could always defect and do what she wants. It all depends on the strength of your orders and that of your illusion trick." Careful and soothing, he rubbed at the small of her back, watching her think.

"Do you think Sir Integra is alright then?" she murmured while still lost in thought.

"You tell me, little one. How mighty is your will over your kingdom?"

The choice of words caught her attention and she peered up at him. "She said something like that, just now, about a kingdom."

"Hm?"

"Sir Integra," she clarified. "She said that..." Her gaze shifted to the streets below, or rather, the endless stream of blood and souls. "That that was _your_ kingdom. Is that true?"

Alucard hummed in delight, that all too familiar smirk momentarily appearing under that strange new mustache of his. "It's not something I can confirm or deny, but for the sake of sanity, yes. It is the kingdom of souls I've collected from my centuries of life, countless bodies from hundreds of battles and wars. They consume and further multiply their ranks in doing so. It is my decree, as per my Master's orders."

"It's all your blood?"

"Every last drop." He amused himself with his fledgling's curiosity, moving closer to the edge of the rooftop to give her a better view. He sensed that mad voice he'd heard before making itself known again.

" _Surely he can spare a few for us? Master is a generous beast. One or two wouldn't hurt his power. Drops, souls; what's the difference?_ "

From what he could tell, the little soul was a ruthless, ravenous one, spoke with primal intent and desperation, as if never fully satiated, and wasn't entirely Seras herself. He had to wonder if she'd ever listen to its advice or ignore it on principle alone. He'd love to see her act on its suggestions, just to see how monstrous she could truly be.

Seras snatched the bayonet out of the air before it hit her Master's head, roaring with anger as she threw it away and bared her deadly fangs at the paladin that dared to attack them.

It happened so suddenly, Alucard was rather shocked, but impressed nonetheless. His fledgling had seen the threat and acted so smoothly. He had honestly given little thought to their enemy, who he knew was after him specifically. Guess it was time to take care of that.

"Come down here and fight, you coward!" Anderson screamed from down below. His clothing was covered with blood and ash, his once calm and collected demeanor turned haggard. Part of his left arm was even dangling off a few muscles, likely torn through by the army of blood familiars.

Both vampires growled, and Seras dropped from her perch on Alucard's shoulder, eager to get to battle.

"Go take care of the others, won't you, little one?"

She looked up to him, surprised and even a little annoyed. Why couldn't she join in on the fun? She was itching to kill and drink fresh. Surely she could handle fighting alongside her Master now, right? He had complimented her power just a moment ago. Why the sudden change in attitude?

Did he mean the women she saw before? Oh, if that was the case, then she'd happily obey. She purred in delight, nodding and wordlessly scampering off, leading her dogs along with her. It was time for the hunt.

Alucard chuckled, enjoying the madness and excitement her body seemed to radiate.

When he looked to his adversary, his grin grew. He easily dodged a shoddily thrown bayonet.

"What's wrong, my friend? You seem a tad worse for wear. Are you sure you're even capable of defeating me in your state?" he mocked, casually hopping from the rooftop to the top of a lamppost. He loomed over the priest, red eyes glowing as he commanded a few of his souls to retaliate.

Anderson snarled and sliced through them without hesitation. "I am the embodiment of God's wrath. Through me, he smites the wicked. I don't care what it takes, demon. I will have your head. I will rid this world of your horrors."

Delighted, Alucard pulled out his sword, dropping down to meet his enemy. "So be it then. Show me the power your god has bestowed upon you."

He parried a bayonet out of the way, swiping his weapon at Alexander's chest. Though his strike was easily evaded as well, he took no time attacking again, moving to pierce the blade into the paladin's heart.

Using his limp arm, Anderson let the sword dig into his hand. He caught the hilt and flung the weapon away, the force tugging at the threads of muscle holding his arm together. He threw three more bayonets, one ricocheting against the vampire's armor, while the other two dug into his shoulder and neck.

Not deterred, Alucard pulled the blessed blades out and fought through the pain long enough to turn them around in his hands, digging them into Anderson's shoulders.

The man screamed and stumbled back, the pain rushing through his bones. He grit his teeth and contemplated trying to remove them, but deciding against it.

"Well, Judas Priest? Have you given up? Surely this can't be your best." Alucard slowly faded back into his normal form, unimpressed with the performance thus far.

Anderson grunted, but said nothing more as he took something out of his pocket.

* * *

"Damn it! Damn her! Damn that woman!"

"Shut the hell up! Do your goddamn job or we're all fucking dead!"

"It's no use! She tore through everything! That bitch's crashing the ship!"

Men hurried about the control room, trying to right the broken machine that was the airship.

"We're losing altitude! There's nothing we can do!"

Screaming brought all of their eyes on one of the soldiers, who quickly lost his head as Seras chewed clean through his neck. She looked up at the others, her grin displaying fresh blood and the intent to kill. She stood, holding her scythe in one hand and the head in the other.

Sing took the head in her maw, crushing it with her strong teeth and licking up the remnants. Hell attacked another of the soldiers, frightening the crew all the more with his fierce gaze.

"You–! You–!" one of the men, likely the head of this troop, tried spitting out, trembling with fear and anger.

"Insightful commentary. Are any of you actually going to do something? It'd be more fun if you actually tried–" She was cut off by the leader pulling a gun out and aiming it at her, which brought her smile back. "There we are. Actual effort. Finally. And here I thought all you Nazis were bloody cowards." Walking closer, she laughed as he took the safety off, his finger ready on the trigger.

Before she could say any more of her teasing words, he fired a full round at her head.

She staggered back from the force of each shot into her skull, then shook her head. The spent bullets clattered to the floor as she did. Rubbing her head as the wounds healed, she murmured, "Nope. I still don't see the appeal."

Without a second thought, she swung her scythe, burying it in the man's chest, then looked to the others.

Five left. Her dogs were still eating up their kills. Good. Her red eyes gleamed with renewed confidence.

As their leader cried from the pain, the remaining soldiers quaked in their boots. One of them fell to the floor.

Big mistake.

Blood from the decapitated body behind her shot out towards the sniveling man, tearing through his torso and turning him into nothing more than a pile of useless meat on the floor. Soon, Seras had a familiar chain reaction occurring, this time on purpose, and she enjoyed the quick screams just before their swift deaths all too much.

Finally, she turned her attention back to the captain of the crew, stalking towards him.

He whined and struggled to try pulling out the blade of the scythe, but to no avail.

"Well, I guess my original hunch was right. Your kind are all lowlife cowards. Honestly, I'm not surprised. Suppose you all make a decent meal for my pets." She pulled her scythe away and kept a tight grip on the man's throat as she spoke.

"Damn you, you vampire bitch!"

She rolled her eyes. "As if I haven't heard that a thousand times already." Slamming the blunt end of her scythe against the floor, she released her hold on the soldier and hummed, satisfied as she watched her dogs devour the last of the Nazis in this room.

Peering out the window, she grimaced. Damn! The ground was coming fast!

The door to the control room creaked open, a few soldiers screeching bloody murder when they saw the Police Girl standing in the middle of the mess of blood and torn up bodies.

She gave them a momentary glance, then a cheeky grin. "Auf Wiedersehen." She waved before she jumped out, her hounds quickly following after.

After landing on a rooftop, she turned her head to see the imminent explosion, shielding her eyes from the seconds of flashing bright flames. With a laugh, she bounded away from her destruction, deciding to focus now on her new mission.

Finding and killing the last of the Iscariots loitering the London scene.

That definitely wasn't difficult. Most of them were still up in the helicopters, shooting at the river of her Master's souls.

Seras marveled at the souls as they began to pile on top of each other like rats trying to escape a cage. She soon realized their intent and how quickly other groups of souls took to copying the actions with others. Half of Maxwell's army was down in moments.

She noticed then a strange streak of something dart through the sky, passing the pillars of blood like a comet. Curious, she followed after it until she figured out what it was aimed at.

The copter holding Maxwell in his perplexing glass case exploded once the streak turned it into ribbons. It was somewhat entertaining to see the bishop's shock and immediate despair before his cage started falling from the sky.

He had to be dead from the impact alone, right?

Seras mentally groaned, knowing she had to go check. Why couldn't the rivers of blood just tell her like her own blood spoke to her? They were probably eating at his corpse at this rate.

Begrudgingly, she hopped to it, bouncing from building to building, crossing multiple streets in seconds.

On the way, she narrowly missed a sniper shot at her leg. She stopped and surveyed the area where it seemed to come from.

Barely did she make out the form of that Heinkel woman. Behind her, Yumie seemed to chastise her, and Heinkel responded with a grimace, clearly upset with having missed.

Seras wanted to say something to them, but noticed then that neither of them looked worried about their leader. Weren't they supposed to be protecting him? Had they not seen him plummeting to his death moments ago?

Did that mean... he was still alive? Impossible. That glass couldn't have possibly withstood the fall. Even if it did, Maxwell surely couldn't have.

She glared at the two paladins, then rushed off to make sure. If he, by some great, holy miracle, wasn't dead, then she was going to make sure he was. And she'd make it there before Heinkel and Yumie could even think of stopping her.

Her hounds raced ahead of her, clearly tracking the scent of fresh human. Hell jumped down to the streets, Sing clumsily following after him. Seras, without questioning, kept right at their tails.

The river of souls parted once she landed in the middle of it, in a way recognizing her presence as she walked through their ranks. Perhaps it was her Master's orders to them that they weren't supposed to attack her or something to that nature that made them act accordingly. It was strangely flattering. Made her feel somewhat important, like the Queen maybe.

Brushing away those childish thoughts, she focused on her task.

It was definitely shocking to find the bishop's untouched, barely harmed form lying in his glass case. As she came closer, his body began to twitch. How the hell this man was still conscious, she had no clue. She clearly underestimated human resilience.

She circled the case, inspecting it for any cracks. When she didn't find any, she placed a hand on the glass, pressing into it and expecting it to easily crack under the great pressure. When it didn't, she found it right to assume this wasn't any normal type of glass.

Maxwell groaned and sat up, immediately flinching back when he saw Seras standing nearby. Soon, his fear turned into wicked glee, cackling as she silently watched him, hand still pressed against the glass.

"So you're the one they call Seras? The naive pet of a pet Police Girl everyone is so afraid of. It's an honor to finally be in your presence, though a tad disappointing. I expected a woman more ruthless in appearance. Not a child swinging a blade around pretending to be a monster." He stood, mirth barely contained as he held his stomach.

Her gaze narrowed into a deadly glare.

He dusted himself off, scoffing at the small cut on his forehead. Producing a handkerchief, he wiped enough of the blood off then tossed it at the floor of his cage. With a mocking smirk, he stomped his shoe against it and crossed his arms over his chest. He leaned in closer, that smug grin ever-present.

Annoyed, Seras let her hand pass through the glass and grab his head, pulling it until his nose was bashed against the glass. She smiled as his wounded pride and likely broken nose. That changed his attitude quick.

"Get away from the Bishop, vampire!"

Seras' gaze shifted to the two paladins, who finally caught up with her.

Maxwell's happiness returned at the sight of two of his loyal soldiers. "Girls, kill her! This monster dares to attack an arch-bishop!"

Her grin turned mischievous as she moved her whole arm in, grabbing their respected leader and forcing him against the opposite wall of his glass box once her whole body was in. Tilting her head like a confused dog, she giggled at their upset reactions.

With Maxwell squirming in her hold, she dug a thumb into his throat, reveling in the sounds of his gagging and whimpering. Her eyes twinkled with wicked pleasure. She showed her fangs, lethal and hungry for blood.

" _Finally. Pure human blood. Fresh blood. Finally! Finally, finally, finally!_ "

"No! No, please! I beg of you! I don't want to die!" he pleaded, his voice breaking. He heard the madness. It seemed to echo through the glass case.

She purred, breathing in the scent of fear and delighting in his begging. It elicited the joy of a monster, so much so that she was almost tempted to toy with him a little longer. But this meal was one she'd been waiting for what felt like forever to have.

Like a ravenous, starved beast, Seras buried her fangs into his neck, drinking in all she could as quickly as possible. Blood that dripped to the floor was given little time to sit still before it was pulled into the vampire's shadow.

Heinkel fired at the glass, roaring when each bullet bounced off the surface without so much as a dent.

Yumie as well attempted to break through, her sword leaving not even a scratch on the glass.

Both women were startled out of their anger by Seras, whose insane laughter was punctuated by her pressing the torn off head of their bishop against the glass, licking at the bite marks on his neck with her long tongue. Her wild eyes watched them and she was pleased to see them double their efforts to get to her.

She sat down in the middle of the box, enjoying her meal and the entertainment that came with it while it lasted.

Heinkel growled and grabbed Yumie, moving back before either of them decided to do anything stupid. She pinched the bridge of her nose then glared at the vampire.

Obviously they weren't doing anything, blindly beating at unbreakable glass. The creature knew that.

"What are you thinking, Heinkel?" Yumie asked, biting back her rage.

"We can't break it. The only way to get her out of there is to lure her out. The question then is, how?"

"I doubt she'll come out easy."

Hell whimpered as he passed by the two paladins, already begging for scraps from his owner as he passed through the glass and sat at her side. He nuzzled his nose against her cheek, licking blood off her chin. His tail wagged happily when she finally decided to hand him some meat to eat.

Watching the dog reminded both women of something. There were two dogs under the vampire's control, weren't there?

Sing scrambled out of the crowd of souls, shaking her fur clean of blood smears. She peered up at the two paladin's, confused as to why they had such devious expressions on their faces. She howled in pain as one of them fired blessed bullets into her head.

Seras and Hell perked up, the hound growling and baring his teeth. Seras, on the other hand, was honestly surprised at how merciless her enemies were. Sing was so dopey and ignorant. It hurt her to see the dog hiding her wounds under her paws and whining.

Standing up, she decided to take the bait and step out of her cage, now that she was full and energized by her meal.

Hell charged at the women, snapping his teeth at them until they stepped away from his sister. He kept his fangs in full view, claws at the ready as well.

"Heel, boy," Seras ordered, moving between her dogs and the humans. Her once-discarded scythe back in hand, she waited for them to strike, curious to see what they'd do.

Yumie was the first to react, readying her katana before charging at the vampire.

Seras dodged the slash, stumbling around her dogs and ducking to avoid another attack from the berserker. Using the shaft of her scythe, she blocked a downward slice until she knocked the woman back with a decent shove. Without a moment's hesitation, she swung the scythe at the nun and stepped closer.

Heinkel furrowed her brows, upset that she was noticed by the monster. If Yumie wasn't being so rash, it would give the priest a clear shot at the vampire's head or heart. Seras was using her companion as a shield. Crafty beast.

Before she could warn Yumie, the berserker struck again, aiming low.

Quick to react, Seras slammed the blunt end of her scythe against the hand holding the sword, hoping to knock the weapon out of her grip.

While not exactly doing what she wanted, it did lead her to bounce back just far enough. With this new distance, she swung her scythe again, this time aimed at Heinkel, who dropped her gun and backed away.

Seras grinned, keeping the blade close to the priest's neck as she eyed Yumie, daring her to strike again. As she expected, Yumie didn't move, gaze darting between the vampire and her companion.

"Good girl," Seras joked, stepping back once she was sure neither of them would try anything. She turned her attention to her dogs, Sing once again back in high-spirits and Hell protective at her side. She motioned for them to follow, then waved goodbye to the two Iscariots before running off into the parting crowd.

"Why on earth is she running? Does she think we're too weak?" Yumie said, irritated and flustered. "Or maybe she's too much of a coward to fight."

"I doubt that," Heinkel replied, somewhat agitated herself. She watched the black dog leave the scene, but only then noticed the other one had stuck around. She looked to it, surprised to find her sniper in between its teeth.

When she took it from the dog, it barked and circled around both of them. Then it playfully wagged its tail around, as if eager for a treat.

"Thank you?" Heinkel tried, unsure.

The dog barked again, sticking its tongue out.

" _Friends? Friends. Friends! Mistress' friends! Friends! Friends give pets! Friends! Friends! Pet!_ "

Both women looked to each other as if to confirm what they just heard, then looked back to the dog, who appeared confused but soon turned right back to joyful. Her tail wagging increased in frequency, her expectant gaze locked on Heinkel.

Though obviously hesitant, the priest reluctantly held a hand out, cautiously reaching for the dog. When it was clear the dog wasn't going to attack, Heinkel gave in and pet the dog's head. Strangely enough, the action was soothing. It was like the burden of fear was lifted from her shoulders.

" _Friend! Pet! Yes!_ "

Yumie glared at the dog before scratching her behind the ear.

" _Yes! Friends pet Sing! Thank you, friends! Mistress thanks friends! Friends nice! Goodbye, friends!_ "

Sing hopped onto all fours, circling the two one last time before scampering off after her brother and owner.

"What... just happened?" Heinkel questioned.

"I think that dog just made peace with us," Yumie responded, though her tone betrayed confidence.

"I swear, these vampires are going to make my head spin."

* * *

Following the trail wasn't that difficult. Even though he didn't linger long in the same space, that thing made himself known whenever he appeared in a new spot. Keeping up was no longer the problem. Instead, trying not to be noticed before he decided to move on was.

He saw her often enough that she knew he was aware of her prowling. His ears twitched just before he disappeared, a clear indication he heard her steps.

So she eventually remained still, then as she moved, she kept quiet. No breath. Calculated and careful steps down the hall. Alerting none of the humans.

When she found him again, she froze, eyes trained on the back of his head.

Then she crept forward, watching for the signs.

How easily the cat had become the hunted rat.

Seras pinned him to the floor, growling like a dangerous predator. He struggled and kicked beneath her, but kept a joking expression and laughed maniacally.

"Looks like you finally caught me. So what? What are you going to do now?" Schrodinger giggled as he spoke. "You know you can't kill me. Her blood told you that, didn't it? The Lieutenant was never as strong as she acted. All an illusion."

For a moment, the Police Girl remained silent, watching the insane cat boy squirm. Then she murmured, "You won't kill me."

"Oh? What makes you think that?"

"I'm not one of your targets. The werewolf was meant to kill me. Zorin, to destroy the manor and the Hellsing forces. You... You're going after my Master. And Sir Integra." Her grip on his wrists tightened as he tried pulling them out of her hold.

"The werewolf," he repeated with a scowl. "You say that like he doesn't have a name. But yes, he and I were meant to kill you vampires. Were-creature blood is poisonous to bloodsuckers, after all."

Well, it made sense now why her first instinct upon seeing the Captain's blood was to not drink it.

"We're at an impasse then," she concluded.

Schrodinger chuckled. "If that's what you'd like to believe, I certainly won't stop you."

Before she could ask what his implication was, he disappeared. She stood, scanning the hall and sensing for his presence again. How could she have let him get away? He was going to kill Integra if she didn't–

Wait. Oh, god!

Racing down the hall, Seras stormed into Integra's office.

Schrodinger yelped as his head was bashed against the desk, his knife forced into the wood instead of his intended target. He grunted and tried twisting out from under the vampire's arm.

"What is the meaning of this?" Integra questioned, angered by the disturbance.

"I caught this sneaky kitten trying to kill you, sir," Seras spoke playfully. Not taking any chances, she yanked the knife out of the boy's hand and tossed it to the floor.

Walter picked it up.

"An assassination attempt? By a child? Millennium is growing reckless in their attempts to kill me." Integra rested back in her chair, unimpressed now that the situation was under control.

"Once again, we're at an impasse, Schro," Seras joked.

"You forget, Fraulein. I'm everywhere and nowhere," he countered, his ears twitching their familiar indication.

He didn't get far, attempting to disappear again, only to have his face slammed against the floor.

"Well, right now, you're _here_ ," Seras hissed, pressing her knee against the boy's back. "I insist you stay a while."

He struggled and waved his arms about, but remained quiet otherwise.

"Miss Victoria, please don't get blood on the carpet. It's quite difficult to remove it," Walter requested as he placed the knife in Sir Integra's awaiting hand.

"No need to worry, Walter. I can't drink from this one, unfortunately."

Integra inspected the weapon, intrigued by the blade's sharpness and quality. It certainly looked nothing like an ordinary knife.

"Let me go!" cried the cat boy.

"Why should I? So you can just grab another weapon and try again?" Seras barked, clearly agitated.

"Enough," Integra said, knowing that if she let the two continue, the bickering wouldn't stop. "Police Girl, just let him go."

"But sir, he'll–"

"If he attempts to kill me again, then stop him when he does. He knows he won't get far trying."

"And what about Master?

"What of him?"

"He's going after him too. Master will die if we don't keep him here."

"What?"

* * *

"She's making quite the mess of everything, isn't she? Destroying all my precious ships, killing my soldiers, ruining my plans. She's almost as much a nuisance as that Master of hers."

The Doctor cried as another explosion sounded from the back of the ship. "Mein Major, we must get out of here! She'll be here any minute and we have nothing left to defend ourselves with!"

"Where are we to go, Doctor? She's likely blown up all possible escape routes by now." The pudgy madman cackled, clearly having resigned to his fate. He watched his monitors, half of them complete static and the others showing fuzzy video of different parts of the destroyed London.

"We can't just sit here doing nothing! My work! I need to go–" He was interrupted by his own scream. He fell to the floor as the airship rumbled, then scrambled to the foot of the chair his leader sat in, trying to get as far away from the new presence in the room.

"Ah, here she is. The vampire herself. Alucard's fascinating new creation. It's so nice to finally meet you in the flesh, Seras Victoria," the Major greeted, his wild grin growing.

Seras remained silent, glaring daggers at the man and his strange assistant.

"Not much for words this time? How unfortunate. I was hoping to have a lovely chat with an old friend tonight. Quite the shame."

"I shouldn't even give you the courtesy," she hissed as she stepped closer to them. Her hounds appeared through the floor, one on either side of her. They, like her, were poised to kill at any moment.

"And yet you grace us anyway. Such a lovely voice, vicious yet noble. Do you intend to kill us, little one?" He tilted his head, feigning ignorance. His mad eyes betrayed such tricks.

Seras seethed with anger, but held back the desire to attack. Her dogs began circling their prey, searching for a point to strike. "As my Master has ordered, yes."

The Major chuckled, then shook his head. "Your Master's orders? Is that what you base your decisions on? I would think by now you are free to make your own choices, Fraulein. You've certainly proven yourself."

"I choose to listen to him then."

"And if he told you to kill his Master for his own freedom, would you?"

She hesitated at a response, caught off guard. It wasn't possible for him to do that, was it? The restraints he was under wouldn't allow him to even consider such ideas. She was sure of that. "Of course not," she replied. "Integra is... a friend. I would never hurt a friend."

"Even if she betrayed the Crown?"

"I trust Sir Integra's judgment. If the circumstances lead to something like that then–"

"But what if they didn't?"

Aggravated now, Seras yelled, "Well, her judgment is leagues better than yours!"

Her response brought back his insane laughter.

"Major," the Doctor whimpered, "perhaps it isn't safe to anger her. Her... The hounds."

"Oh, grow a backbone, my friend. If we are to die, we might as well have fun with it!"

The dogs' eyes glowed a fiery red, brighter as the lights in the room began losing power. The monitors had long since stopped working. The ship itself was groaning as it fell apart. It wouldn't be long before the whole thing crashed to the ground, just like the others.

Seras clicked her tongue.

Sing snapped at the Doctor's shoulder, making him jolt back in fright. With the human's eyes on her, Hell pounced on him, biting into a leg and dragging him away from the Major. Sing followed along, grabbing the other leg before it could successfully hit her brother's head. Soon, the Doctor's body was lost in the shadows, the only sounds being his agonized screams and the dogs feeding.

The Major was rather eager to see the chaos in a better light, but wasn't allowed to leave his chair once Seras held her scythe at his chest.

She moved closer, leaning in to meet him at eye level. Her eyes searched his for even the smallest semblance of rationality.

Nothing. Absolutely nothing there, but the endless pools of madness.

"Why?"

She perked up at the question. "Why what?"

"Why did Alucard make you a vampire? Has he told you? Do you know for certain?" he continued to question.

"I chose to be a vampire," she stated simply. It wasn't so difficult to answer him that.

"But why were you given the choice? Why you of all humans he has ever encountered? What makes you, once nothing but a naive policewoman, so special to the King of Vampires that he allowed you the choice?"

"Why does it matter to you?" she countered, tired of his rambling.

He went quiet, the sounds of destruction punctuating his insanity.

Seras grabbed him by the collar of his suit, baring her fangs in a clear threat that demanded answers.

The floor cracked, trembled, and broke apart at her feet. The room filled with a growing heat, the explosions coming closer.

"You've seen his kingdom. The souls the man has collected over the centuries. Any one of them could have taken your place. A few of them were even once like you. But you have survived beyond their times. You have surpassed them. Haven't you ever questioned why that is the case?"

Her serious expression gained a twinge of doubt. "He... Master gave me the choice."

"But was it really your choice?"

" _Shut up! Shut up and die! Kill him!_ "

There was something she could agree to.

Flinging the rotund annoyance into the air, she jumped as the floor crumbled beneath her. She gripped her scythe steady in both hands and swung it so hard and fast that it sliced straight through him.

His smile remained as his top half split and fell one way.

At first, she thought it was a trick of the eye that he was still somewhat moving as he fell. The force of the air around him moving his arm and head.

No. He was still moving. There was barely any blood coming out of him too.

She followed him as he dropped to the ground, and it was then she noticed the truth. Wordlessly, she dug the scythe into his head, then his heart, the latter out of precaution. The scraping of metals against the blade irked her ears, but she was at least satisfied with the death.

She definitely wasn't drinking his blood.

Lifting her head up, she realized then that she had completed her mission, for the most part.

Integra was safe at the manor with Walter and her bat illusion. The Geese were all okay too. Her Master had returned and was likely still fighting Anderson. She'd taken care of Maxwell and the Major.

All that was left was to see if her Master needed help and things were golden. The war was almost over.

Barking brought her attention to a nearby building, where her dogs sat waiting for her. Sing barked again, licking her teeth and wagging her tail as always. Hell sniffed at the air, likely eager for something more to satiate his boredom.

Seras giggled and hopped onto the roof, petting both of them.

Hell grumbled.

"Oh, you grumpy pup. What is it? Doctor give you a belly ache?" She looked in the direction he was facing, then squinted her gaze.

There was something strange about the color of the fire and blood coating the streets. It had changed to a bright blue and spread quickly down the lanes, overtaking almost everything in its wake.

They bounded towards a nearby street to investigate.

She was wrong. It wasn't burning everything.

It was just burning the river of souls. Her Master's countless souls were being engulfed by the flames.

* * *

" _No, no, no, no._ "

Seras hissed at the air around her, placing a hand on her head to quell the bubble of fear in her chest. She didn't want to look out the window anymore. She was not looking out the window. She didn't want to believe what she was seeing.

Her vision was lying to her. The Major's words were messing with her brain. It wasn't real. An illusion of the mind. Zorin's restless soul playing tricks on her. Yes! That was it!

"Oh," Schrodinger whined, his ears flattening against his head, "but killing Alucard was my job! Now what am I going to do?"

" _Shut up! He's not dead!_ "

"Be quiet," Seras snapped again at the air. She glared at the cat boy, wanting him to know her words were meant for him as well.

"Police Girl, what is it?" Integra asked as she turned her chair around to inspect the situation outside. As she stood, the woman was somewhat taken aback by what she saw.

"It's not real. Sir, it can't... Please tell me it's not real," Seras whimpered, turning away from the window.

Schrodinger rolled his eyes. "Oh please. Anyone with working eyes can see the fire."

"His kingdom," Integra said with a gulp. "It's burning."

"See?"

Seras growled at him. She had half a mind to beat him to a bloody pulp if he didn't shut up.

She didn't want to see it, believe it, acknowledge it, let it be known, anything. She didn't want it all to be burning. That meant her Master was in grave danger. That meant he had the chance of dying. Would she be able to help him? Save him?

He wasn't dead already, was he?

* * *

"Master!" Seras cried out, running along the burning streets in search of him.

Their battle couldn't have moved far from where she'd last left him. He had to be okay, right? His souls were still somewhat moving, despite the flames. That meant he was fine. Perfectly okay! Whatever was happening was just affecting the souls. Not him. He was okay. She'd be okay once she saw him.

No, she wasn't.

"Master!" she screamed out again, blood tears forming in her eyes when she found him and Anderson.

The latter of the two was... obviously warped. Not the priest they once knew. This... thing was a bunch of strange, tentacle-like vines swarming around Anderson's body, holding it together and keeping him standing.

She could tell he had been pretty beaten before whatever happened to change him. Two of his own bayonets were even sticking out of his shoulders. How that happened, she didn't want to know.

Her Master, on the other hand...

Those same vines were wrapped around a bayonet now lodged into his neck. They seeped through his skin, like the roots of a tree in dirt, and planted the weapon into his veins, making sure it wasn't leaving anytime soon.

His eyes were glassy, his face barely marred by the flames. She understood now why the flames were blue, and she could barely fathom the pain he was feeling. He seemed numb, lost in a fog in order to escape the pain.

How could she help him? What could she do?

Anderson would likely attack her if she tried coming near to pull out the offending bayonet. If she tried to fight him directly, she'd likely end up in a similar situation to her Master, then no one would be saved.

Then what would she do? What was there to do?

She looked to the waves of blood surrounding the two, her Master's similarly burning souls that still moved like restless zombies. She could barely make out the tinge of blood red they all used to be made out of, faces charred to ash color now.

Wait.

That gave her an idea.

Hell and Sing whined at her sides, worried as they watched their owner's expression turn unsure. She looked between the two of them, nodding to them, swallowing her fear, breathing in a huge gulp of air, tightening her grip on her scythe.

Then she took the plunge into the burning river, her dogs flanking her.

* * *

She was alone. Figuratively.

She'd been this way for months now. Almost a year, if her sense of time, counting the seconds, minutes, hours, days, and weeks leading into those months, meant anything in this place she called home.

If each step she took counted as a second of time, then almost. If the time she counted in her head was true, then it had been a year for some time now. Maybe even two? No, that was absurd.

She bit her lip, rubbing her arms as if cold, when in all actuality, she was feeling a tad warm as of late. She hadn't any idea as to why. The closest source of warmth didn't even exist here up until recently.

When those around her suddenly started burning blue, she became confused. At one point, she'd felt the flames, but her body quickly rejected them, oddly enough, and they avoided her now more than ever.

The mob of people surrounding her still groaned and kept moving like nothing was wrong. She never memorized any of their faces, not even recognizing any from previous days. They all just walked aimlessly towards something, following a leader she was sure existed, she just couldn't recall who it was.

Despite the army of souls, she always felt lonely. None of them ever spoke actual coherent anything. Nothing but screaming, wailing, moaning. It was perplexing more than it was annoying. Why was she the only one that understood what was happening? Was she really the only conscious being around? Surely, that wasn't the case. They had a leader somewhere in here.

Why was she even here? The question only came to mind now because something felt off. As if she'd forgotten something _important_. What could it have been? She'd been walking around forever. It's not like she had anything to do besides that.

This world of seemingly endless walking through a realm of red and black, now mixed with white and blue, was all she knew.

She sighed, then coughed.

Was that really the case?

Y-Yes. She wasn't arguing with herself on that. There was nothing in this vast world of souls. Just the empty, hollow feeling in her chest, one she especially felt when she breathed, and now this idea that she was supposed to be moving to do _something_. Something. Something, but what?

Coughing again, she placed a hand on her chest. Her thumb felt at a strange hole in her shirt and she looked down to inspect it. When did she–

She gasped, noticing now the large, gaping hole in the right side of her chest. How long had that... been that way?

How long had she been in here?

She tensed as the hands of the person behind her touched at her shoulders, then pushed her aside to keep moving along. She hadn't realized she stopped walking until another burning body shoved her along, their hands searing into the small of her back.

Attempting to move back in line with the others, her mind began racing with new questions, many similar to her previous one. When did she die? Was it more or less than a year ago? Didn't she get the wound before she came here and that's why she was dead? Was this hell?

She somehow knew the answer to that last question was no. Her heart sped up inside what was apparently left of her ribcage, trying to compensate for the new fear and worry.

Then a question she never thought she'd ask herself came to mind; who was she?

* * *

Her back hit a wall. Seras slid down until she was sitting on the floor, holding her head in both hands now. It suddenly hurt so much to think. It was as if her brain was being pulled in various directions. Each individual soul inside her grabbed at her thoughts with a vice-like grip and tugged.

She whined as their voices grew louder inside and refused to leave her alone.

"Seras?"

"Shut up!" she screamed over the call.

Schrodinger stepped aside, allowing Integra a full view of the trembling vampire.

"Seras, look at me," Integra tried again, crouching down in front of her.

The Police Girl's breath hitched in her throat. Blood tears welled up in her eyes as her body shook under the stress. She opened her eyes and looked at the human, trying to focus.

Integra gasped, seeing eyes not the usual blood red but a bright blue like the fire consuming London.

Seras' gaze unfocused, her hands falling to her sides. Her body jerked forward one last time before suddenly crumbling into a bunch of fading pieces.

In its place, a small blood bat squeaked and fluttered about desperately, as if lost or without its head, before it too fell to the floor in defeat, quickly disappearing into nothing.

* * *

Her focus on her own thoughts was constantly interrupted by the screams. The endless cacophony of cries from everyone around her. She covered her ears, shrinking into herself, her breathing suddenly faster.

She looked up at everyone around her, all towering over her, practically trampling over her, still burning, still screaming. No matter what she did, that last fact remained a constant.

What if she did something about it? Well, what could she do?

Wait. Why did that question seem so familiar? Maybe she _was_ supposed to be doing something.

She stood, stumbling and weaving her way through the forest of legs, searching for a familiar face or some kind of unique space. Out of curiosity, she looked back to where she had once been, but couldn't find it anymore.

No turning back now.

Pressing on, she found herself doing what the souls had once done to her, pushing them out of the way in order to get through. Her pace quickened, though her path was still unclear.

A word– No, a name bubbled up into her throat, begging to be spoken.

So, without questioning it, she called out, "Master!"

Her body jolted with a new vigor. She shoved past groups of souls, repeatedly crying out the word until she felt it echo through the warped world around her. Her voice was louder than any and all screams around her. She was stronger than any of them. She climbed over knights on horseback and men twice as tall and wide as she was. Nothing was stopping her on her mission. Not even the flames.

She was Seras Victoria. She was doing what she knew was right. She was finding her Master and fixing this mess he somehow put himself in.

Like always.

It felt like a part of her she never knew existed was healed and awakened.

"Master!" she yelled for what felt like the hundredth time. Where was he? He had to be in here somewhere. She felt it in her bones. He was in this world. In this ocean of millions of souls, her Master was wandering.

She stood on the shoulders of one of the horseback knights, surveying the heads of all the marching, burning souls. She couldn't make out any distinct features in the fire. And he wasn't responding to the sound of her voice either. Could he even hear her? She could hear herself fine. With how vast this place was, she had no idea if that was the case or not.

Damn. That was annoying.

Hopping down, she brushed past the crowds and jumped over others when they weren't budging. She never lost her energy either, which felt great on her muscles. It was as if she was pulling from those around her.

She stopped, looking around her. The faces of the many etched themselves into her mind. All screaming, grabbing at the people in front of them, constantly moving.

She grit her teeth, their voices burning at the edges of her mind. Closing her eyes, she let the pain and anger inside her boil and build up.

Then, she shouted a new word, a new order, out into the blood red sky above, for all to hear, "Silence!"

And when she opened her eyes again, they widened in amazement. Her eardrums could finally relax from all the constant noise.

Not only that though, she realized, but everyone had stopped marching.

Seras smiled and took a step forward, only to marvel as the souls in front of her moved out of the way.

That made things quite easier for her. With renewed step, she walked along, still calling out for her Master. She still couldn't sense him or see him through the people and fire, but this was definite progress to be sure.

Her pace sped up, and part of her couldn't help giggling like a child as she rushed through the obedient masses. She made circles, squares, and other shapes in the crowd, growing impatient but at least keeping herself entertained.

"M–" She froze, the call stifled in her throat.

It... It didn't _feel right_ anymore.

If she was Seras Victoria, and that _is_ what everyone referred to her as here, then he, once Master, would obviously respond better to his own name, right?

"A... Alucard?" she tried, the name strange rolling off her tongue. She shivered, a foreign pleasure suddenly coursing through her veins. Using it as adrenaline, she went back to running, this time using the name rather than the title.

She soon learned that the feeling was an indicator of some kind. Whenever she spoke it in a certain direction, she felt the responding thrill and followed it. The direction, however, was never consistent, so she was left running around the maze like a confused lab rat. She always felt like she was getting close despite the fact.

Sucking in a huge breath, she screeched his name until it reverberated through the world. She was dizzy from the resulting stimulus and had a small laugh, but her joy was cut short by a new response.

 _Seras..._

Her head darted in all directions, practically spinning on her feet as she tried to locate the source. It sounded like him. Him! Alucard!

"Alucard!"

 _Seras?_

Pointed ears twitching, eyes scanning, nose pointed in the air to try sniffing him out, and she even stood on her tip-toes just to look over the heads of others.

She noticed it in the distance, one way, the direction of his voice. A small clearing. She looked behind her to make sure her path had been erased by the people moving back into place and, sure enough, it was.

"Alucard!" she called to him, stumbling into the clearing. She looked around, surprised by the perfect ring of souls suddenly watching her. No, not her.

When she saw what they were staring at, she flinched.

There sat a young boy, beaten, naked, and alone. Dark, messy, medium length hair shrouded his face. He was chained to the floor, heavy shackles around his wrists and ankles. Even one around his neck like a huge, metal collar, she saw once she moved closer.

She sat down in front of him, leaning close and putting her hands on his face. Wet tears fell on her palms as she pushed his hair out of the way, and she frowned as he began to cry. Real, crystal clear tears.

"Shh," she murmured, pulling him closer and rubbing at the scars on his back. They weren't fresh, but she could tell from the way they looked that they had once hurt him greatly. "It's okay. I'm here. It's alright now."

Her peripheral vision caught a change in their surroundings. The people around them, the souls watching, were no longer burning.

"Seras?"

She looked down at the boy, who had the most confused expression on his face.

"Yes? What is it?" she asked.

But he said nothing, just kept his blue eyes on her as if he'd never seen another person before in his life.

Curious, she placed a hand under the large collar, trying to find a way to remove it. No luck there. The shackles on his wrists and ankles? The same results. She even tried finding the end of the chains to try pulling them until they broke, but no matter what, they always seemed loose but heavy in her hands and without an end in sight.

She growled in frustration, stopping when she saw him flinch back in fear. "Sorry."

Seeing the wounds on his neck, however, gave her an idea. She crept back closer, brushed away his hair, and ran a thumb along one of the scars.

A cold chill ran through her skin. Temptation ached at her teeth.

It was absurd, and yet, Seras leaned in, her lips gliding along the edges of the cut. She heard him whimper.

"Hold still," she whispered before biting in.

The blood wasn't fresh, but the taste of it made up for that exponentially. The more she drank in, the better it felt on her tongue. She desperately took until satisfaction hit her, along with a small pang of guilt.

As she pulled away though, the feeling faded. He wasn't dead, definitely breathing, but he was unconscious. She eased him onto the floor, petting him gently one last time before standing.

* * *

"Anderson," Yumie shouted, speaking for both women as they saw their leader's state.

The thing that could barely be considered the paladin looked up to the two standing on the rooftop before returning his attention back to the burning vampire.

"He used the relic. The damn fool. I told him not to and he still goes ahead and does it! Damn it!" Heinkel kicked at the edge of the building, grumbling and crossing her arms over her chest. She turned her attention to the blue flames that were once a monster's army.

"At least he took care of that," Yumie reluctantly said, as if reading her companion's thoughts.

"Yeah..." Suddenly, a thought came to mind. "Hey. Where the hell is the other vampire? Seras?" Heinkel questioned aloud.

The nun shrugged, leaning her head on the other woman's shoulder. She felt so exhausted from running around all night. She honestly couldn't wait to get out of London and relax back at the Vatican.

"What the–?"

She opened her eyes, barely realizing she'd closed them, at the sound of Heinkel's confusion. Immediately, she saw what was so troubling.

The fire was gone.

The river of souls was crimson once more, moving at a regular pace again.

From the middle of the stream, blood amalgamated into an undefinable shape, red eyes appearing. They gleamed with recognition, quickly forming into a body, then two more at its sides.

"Alucard!" Seras screamed as her body finished reshaping itself.

The souls around her abided to an unheard command, moving back as she stepped forward.

Her scythe formed at her fingertips, the blunt end slamming down on the ground.

"Alucard, you promised! Don't you dare surrender now!"

Heinkel dropped down, Yumie following right behind her.

Seras paid them little mind, but her dogs, eager to test out their new strength, snapped their teeth and licked their chops in anticipation of an attack.

That stopped both paladins in their tracks. This clearly wasn't the kind of power they could easily defeat; not even the same Seras they'd encountered previously.

"Alucard!" Seras snarled, slicing through vines that directed themselves her way. "Don't leave me!"

The burning body jerked and twisted, a hand snapping around to grab the handle of the bayonet and pull it out. Alucard straightened, his bones cracking as they responded to his movements once more.

His gaze focused on the enemy before him, his familiar smirk appearing as he purred out, "Of course, my dear." Pulling out his pistols, he aimed at Anderson's shoulders.

Seras sliced through Anderson's legs, forcing the creature down before it could move to retaliate.

Using the distraction, Alucard fired, successfully blowing off both the thing's arms.

Before the vines were able to heal, Seras' dogs each fetched an arm and ran back to her, hungrily chomping down on as much as they liked.

Alucard grabbed the priest's head by the hair. Barely avoiding the vines, he roared and forced his hand into the man's chest, pulling out the offending object, a heart with a nail in it. Without a word, he crushed it, tossing remained and his defeated enemy to the ground, breathing heavily.

At his feet, Anderson, though weak, chuckled. "I did it."

His frustrations fading, Alucard smiled and knelt down. "Yes, my friend. You did. You've defeated me."

"Aye. You certainly put up quite the fight. You and that Queen of yours. Such a shame too. Who will take care of the orphans? Teach them the Lord's... the Lord's words..." His voice faltered, his life clearly fading fast. "Tell... Tell the children... I will meet them in heaven... Tell... Them..."

The body, unable to recover without a heart, soon faded to dust, floating into the wind.

Alucard sighed, then peered up at the form looming over him.

"Hello," Seras greeted, leaning against her scythe casually.

Without warning, causing her to squeak, he picked her up and held her tighter than last time. "You drank the blood," was all he said, knowing she'd understand.

Laughing and letting go of her weapon, she nuzzled her head against his and replied, "I did. Is that good?"

"Perfection. You've done better than I ever would have asked of you, my dear."

She giggled, delighted by the compliment. As always, pleasing him spurred a happiness she couldn't entirely describe through their connection. With a sigh of relief, a seemingly eternal burden lifting from her shoulders, she whispered, "It's over."

"Almost," he corrected, poking a finger at her head. His gaze shifted to the two remaining Iscariots.

Following his line of sight, she smirked. "Oh, they're no trouble. Leave them alone, won't you? Besides, the Vatican will need _something_ to protect it now that their best is gone."

Heinkel, hearing the vampire's words, balled her hands into fists in an effort to hold back a sharp, angered response. She had to admit their enemy was right, even somewhat merciful, if she was giving the monster any credit.

Alucard shrugged. "If you insist. Shall we clean up and leave for the manor then?"

"I'd love that, yes," Seras said.

With that, the two vampires disappeared, the hounds howling and following after them.

* * *

"You. Do something."

Integra's orders cut like a blade. Schrodinger huffed, placing a hand on his chest as if physically wounded.

"Me? I don't work for you. Why should I do anything you tell me?" he asked in a tone of mocking disbelief.

"You can make yourself useful, at least. I have no idea what's happening out there and both of my vampires are presumably getting themselves killed." She slammed her hands on her desk in frustration, only then noticing the slight splintering of the wood. Sure that wasn't there before.

"Sir," Walter called as he looked out the window, "the fire has died out."

The Hellsing turned to look and sure enough, her butler was right. Whether that meant Alucard and Seras were okay, however, was still up for debate.

"Oh, relax. Do you really think your vampire can be easily killed by some silly holy artifact? Please. I'm the only creature capable of killing Alucard," the cat boy gloated, appearing suddenly in Integra's chair now that she wasn't using it.

She glowered at the insolent were-creature, but otherwise let him be. He wasn't worth her effort anyway.

Gazing back at the city in the distance, a solemn feeling settled in the pit of her stomach.

The sun was peeking over the horizon. A whole night had come and passed. In that one night, almost all of London's people were brutally killed, along with more unfortunate foreign casualties on the Vatican's side. All this chaos, created by Millennium in an attempt to defeat Alucard, disappeared once dawn made itself known. All that remained was the Hellsing manor and its current inhabitants, as well as the ruins of London itself and whatever humans were lucky enough to survive on the battlefield.

And her vampires? She was about to doubt their survival, but as Schrodinger had said, it took a lot more to destroy Alucard.

Two creatures tumbled into the grass in front of the manor. Wolves, she noted once she got a better look at them. Familiars, perhaps? Hopefully?

A figure showed up, chasing after the two animals.

"Seras," Integra said with a sigh of relief.

The vampire looked nothing like the frightened girl that turned to ash at her feet. She seemed healthier, happier than ever, stronger even, as she ran to the manor at a breakneck pace.

"Come back here, you two!" Seras ordered.

She phased through the doors, making a grab at Sing's tail and pulling her back. Her fingers just barely missed the end of Hell's, who howled and sunk down into the lower floors. Seras growled, matching Sing's tone and mimicking her whimpers.

"Cheeky little pup. Don't go running off like that and maybe I won't have to ruin the fun," she said, tapping the dog's nose before she let her go to follow after her brother. She hummed and stretched her arms, finding comfort in being back home.

Like a child, she giggled and scurried to the kitchen.

"Ma chère, you're back!"

Warm arms and a strong kiss on the cheek were the first things to greet her. Honestly, she didn't mind, ecstatic to see her favorite captain again.

"I promised I would, didn't I?" she reminded him.

"Yes, you did, and I'll be throwing myself into danger trying to repay you for that," he spoke through his incoherent garbles. He rested his head and arms on her shoulders, the goofiest grin plastered on his face.

"You don't have to do that." She chuckled and looked to Theo, who was clearly still the only sober one in the room. "How much did he drink?"

"We're almost out, so I made him quit just now." He ran a hand through his hair, trying to relieve apparent stress. "Is it over, Miss Victoria?" he asked hopefully.

She nodded slowly.

* * *

Alucard moved through the door, making his way to his Master's desk to stand before her.

"You've done well to take care of things, my vampire," Integra stated, leaning against her desk.

"Of course, my Master. I did as you ordered of me and ensured our enemies demise. The Iscariots have lost their numbers and Millennium is no more. I doubt any vampires will be trying to threaten us anytime soon." He smirked, only for it to disappear at the sight of... Well...

"Don't go taking all the credit for Seras' work," Schrodinger teased, leaning against the monster's side. "You might have turned the tide, but she was the one to finish the job."

Baring his fangs at the annoyance, Alucard looked to Integra with a concerned eye.

The Hellsing rolled her eyes. "Ignore him. He does have a point, though. How was Seras? We lost contact with her for some time."

Shrugging away the were-cat, Alucard let his smile return. A twinkle of satisfaction played in his glowing red eyes.

That was the response she'd expected really.

"Well, she did complete her mission without much trouble. I suppose I can give her that. The question becomes now; what will she do with her new freedom?" Integra considered, tapping a finger against her desk.

"My Master, you don't really intend–"

He was cut off by arms around his neck, Seras resting her head on his shoulder as she appeared. "If that's what you're curious about, sir, I promise you I won't do anything Alucard here wouldn't." She chittered softly against his neck, responding to his deep grumble.

Raising a brow, Integra hummed. As likely as she wanted to believe that, she knew it wasn't something those in the Round Table would agree to. Those like Sir Irons weren't assured by promises. "Nevertheless, what are you going to do now, Seras?"

The younger vampire smiled, noticing the woman was using her name rather than the silly nickname Alucard had once given her. "Well, I don't really know what you're expecting me to say. It's not like I'm leaving now that I'm a full vampire. I'll still be working for you. That won't change just because I have."

"But you have all the freedom in the world. Why waste your time with these boring humans when you could go out and see the world?" Schrodinger suggested, bouncing around in excitement.

Seras dropped down and grabbed the cat boy by a pointed ear. "No." She emphasized the word as she growled it into the ear, then let him go.

He scoffed, "You're all so boring. Where's your sense of adventure?"

"Why the hell are you still here?"

"Because I'm bored. And with my Major and the rest of Millennium dead, I'm now a stray cat, free to do whatever I please." He relaxed against the floor, clearly amused with Seras' attention on him.

"Then you leave and go on your stupid adventures yourself, you aggravating little–!" She stopped herself, knowing it was no use arguing with what basically amounted to madness. Composing herself, she looked back to Integra. "Like I said, I'm definitely not going away anytime soon. Not that I'd have anywhere to go if I wanted to." She shrugged.

Integra sighed. "I suppose– Until everything has been fixed and returned to normal, that is– we don't have to worry about putting restrictions on you. I trust you enough to control yourself."

"Really?" Seras brightened.

"But..."

Of course there was that. There was always a trick to these things, it seemed.

"You have to take care of that thing," Integra declared, pointing to the were-cat on the floor.

Seras deflated. Why him? Why _her_? Couldn't she just deal with Alucard and that's it? "Do I have to?"

"We can't have him going around causing a ruckus and you seem capable of keeping track of him just fine. Do this, and we'll handle your judgment at a later date."

"Yes, sir," Seras agreed rather begrudgingly, crossing her arms over her chest. Babysitting an annoying cat. Glad she saved London just to be given that as her next job. She huffed, turning and leaving.

It could have been worse. It definitely could have. She could've been forced to endure whatever pains came with being chained down to the Hellsing line and whatever followed after.

She stood in the hall, biting away the pout. That was childish. She was better than that. She could handle whatever Integra threw at her and if the stupid cat was next, she'd just have to bear with it.

A hand landed on her head, petting her. She looked up, almost surprised to see it was Alucard. She smiled, leaning into his touch.

"I've missed you, my dear."

She giggled, pulling his hand out of her hair and brought him closer. "So I've heard."

"What are you doing?" he purred, crooking a brow.

"Well, _I've_ kept all my promises and _you_ still have one last promise to keep," she reminded him.

"Ah, yes. So the student still wishes to learn," he joked smoothly, picking her up. "Romanian was it?"

"Yes!" She pumped a fist into the air like a child.

"I can't promise to be the best language teacher, or even if my knowledge of the language still holds after this long," Alucard stressed as she climbed onto his back.

"I think that's good enough for me. We've had enough promises for one lifetime," Seras replied, snuggling her head into his soft hair.

* * *

 **Hello, friends! Oh my gosh! Wow! That's it! It's the end! I hope you all enjoyed the ride as much as I have! I'm absolutely proud of how this finale chapter ended up, especially since I wasn't expecting to make it this far! This chapter was definitely a loooooong one, wasn't it? Well, there was a lot to wrap up before the end, and thankfully it ended up making it over the 50K word mark like I wanted too! Without this author's note!**

 **So, yeah, this is actually the ending I've had planned for months, with some slight alteration, obviously, and was the basic motivation for this entire story by the end. I don't really have a Hellsing ship I'm necessarily obsessed with, but being the vampire fanatic I am, I'm compelled to ship the two vampires together the most. You don't have to see it as such, however, and I hope I left it up to personal interpretation.**

 **Anyway, for the people who have been here the whole time, thank you so much for sticking around! Thanks to the people who read, reviewed, favorited, and followed until the end! You all kept me just as motivated to keep going!**

 **Now, for what I'm sure a lot of you are hoping for; news on a sequel. It will definitely take some time to fully flesh out, and I don't know how long it will be nor when it'll come out, but I do have a plan and a summary, likely not fit for Fanfic's character limit, but still something for now.**

 **So, without further ado, here you go:**

 _With Millennium defeated, the war over, and London recovering, things have returned to peace. However, when word of the No-Life King rebuilding his kingdom comes to Hellsing, everyone questions its authenticity as well as Alucard's word. Seras is the only one who believes him, until an unfamiliar person confronts her, claiming to know who she is. The remaining Knights have decided Alucard must be sealed away once again, but where does that leave Seras? And who can trust who in this situation?_

 **Finally, a huge thank you again to every one of you! Thanks for reading this story and giving it the love and attention I never expected it to have. This was all for fun, so if you don't like how it turned out, I'm sorry, but I do. I'm super proud of myself for getting this written. This really has been a project 3 years in the making. It's been a blast! I hope to see you all some time in the future, when I move on to the next project!  
**


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